Orban Believes Ukraine Agreement to Follow Putin-Trump Meeting

TASS ^ | 5/17/25

[marshmallow]

"It could only be reached if President Trump continues his peaceful initiative," the premier added

BUDAPEST, May 17. /TASS/. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban believes that the agreement on settlement of the conflict in Ukraine can only be reached as a result of a meeting between Russian and US presidents, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump. Negotiations between Moscow and Kiev will be insufficient, he said.

"This will not work out. If you hope that Russians and Ukrainians will reach an agreement, you are mistaken. Over the past three years it could have happened any day, but it never happened. I conducted negotiations separately with them and was rebuffed," Orban said in an interview broadcast by the ТV2 television channel. In July 2024, he came with a peacekeeping mission to Kiev and Moscow where he met Vladimir Zelensky and Vladimir Putin.

"It could only be reached if President Trump continues his peaceful initiative," the premier added.

Direct talks between Russia and Ukraine, their first since 2022, were held in Istanbul on May 16, lasting nearly two hours. Head of the Russian delegation Vladimir Medinsky, who serves as a Russian presidential aide, said after the talks that the Russian side is satisfied with their results and is ready to continue contacts. According to Russia’s chief negotiator, the sides agreed to exchange 1,000 Russian POWs for 1,000 Ukrainian POWs. He also said that Ukraine had requested direct talks between the two countries’ leaders and the Russian side had "taken note of this request.".

[hinckley buzzard]

Interesting view from Hungary. Good to see the process is ongoing. These things take time, and most of the action is behind closed doors, unreported to the media.

[McGruff]

Seems like the two sides are words apart:

Question: On what terms would Russia agree to come to the negotiation table with Ukraine at this point?

Sergey Lavrov: We have made no secret regarding our position on the settlement. Russia proceeds from the premise that Kiev’s non-accession to NATO, as well as reaffirming its neutral and non-aligned status as per the 1990 Declaration on Ukraine’s State Sovereignty – these factors form one of the two pillars for a final settlement to the Ukraine crisis that would meet Russia’s security interests. The second pillar consists of overcoming the legacy of the neo-Nazi regime which took power in Kiev after the February 2014 putsch, including the initiative by its perpetrators to eradicate and cancel, in both physical and legislative terms, everything Russian, be it the Russian language, media, culture, traditions, or the canonical Orthodox faith.

The international recognition of Crimea, Sevastopol, the DPR, the LPR, the Kherson and Zaporozhye regions as part of Russia is another imperative.

All the commitments Kiev assumes must be legally binding, contain enforcement mechanisms and be permanent.

Demilitarising and de-Nazifying Ukraine is also on the agenda, along with lifting sanctions, withdrawing lawsuits and cancelling arrest warrants, as well as returning Russian assets subjected to the so-called freeze in the West.

We will also insist on obtaining solid security guarantees for the Russian Federation in order to shield it from any threats emanating from hostile activities by NATO, the European Union and some of their member states along our western border.

28 April 2025

[McGruff]

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump

I WILL BE SPEAKING, BY TELEPHONE, TO PRESIDENT VLADIMIR PUTIN OF RUSSIA ON MONDAY, AT 10:00 A.M. THE SUBJECTS OF THE CALL WILL BE, STOPPING THE “BLOODBATH” THAT IS KILLING, ON AVERAGE, MORE THAN 5000 RUSSIAN AND UKRAINIAN SOLDIERS A WEEK, AND TRADE. I WILL THEN BE SPEAKING TO PRESIDENT ZELENSKYY OF UKRAINE AND THEN, WITH PRESIDENT ZELENSKYY, VARIOUS MEMBERS OF NATO. HOPEFULLY IT WILL BE A PRODUCTIVE DAY, A CEASEFIRE WILL TAKE PLACE, AND THIS VERY VIOLENT WAR, A WAR THAT SHOULD HAVE NEVER HAPPENED, WILL END. GOD BLESS US ALL!!!

May 17, 2025, 10:58 AM

[Red6]

Pray for peace.

In today’s world, many are so removed from reality, that it does not even truly soak into their minds when you say 5,000 lives are extinguished every week!

These are able bodied, younger, in their reproductive years, educated, males that otherwise would be contributing to society in factories, in the trades, as white collar professionals, etc.

The pain and suffering caused by this war, only looked at from one side by our media (thank you Trump for not choosing sides - all the deaths are horrible) is not only a tragedy, it is an abject failure of what NATO was supposed to be, a peace organization which ultimately helped cause a war when it saw the opportunity to expand.

It is an abject failure by the heads of state in Western nations that forgot what their predecessors learned and put in place, systems for communication, dispute resolution and treaties to prevent conflict. We went backwards in time and unlearned the lessons of the past, in fact we even broke down the systems put in place that were designed to prevent this sort of stupidity.

This was a failure by our media which jumped on board with Western censorship and propaganda, fueling the crisis instead of calming it, with one sided emotional narratives which you would expect from some trashy Arab media outlet.

This has been an example of grotesque failure politically (Biden), institutionally (NATO), and by those that purport to inform people and be a watchdog (the MSM).

[Wuli]

It cannot be a “Ukraine” agreement if Ukraine is not in the discussion.