Rules of the Game Should Be Fair – Ukraine's Foreign Minister to Meet His Hungarian Counterpart

Dmytro Kuleba, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, will on 11 December personally meet with his Hungarian counterpart Péter Szijjártó for the first time since the start of the full-scale war in Ukraine.

"Today I will meet with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hungary. This will be our first in-person meeting since the start of the full-scale invasion. And I think this fact speaks for itself: we continue to talk with Hungary," Dmytro Kuleba said before a meeting of EU Foreign Ministers in Brussels.

"As I have already noted, Ukraine has changed its legislation on education and the use of minority languages in the way Hungary wanted. And this fact must be respected.

The decision of the European Commission had specific wording: that Ukraine should bring its legislation in line with the recommendations of the Venice Commission. And all the key recommendations of the Venice Commission have been implemented...

I think the rules of the game should be fair. If we are told to do something and it is done, it should be recognised as a result," he added.

When asked about the details of a brief meeting between Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Argentina, Kuleba said he was not there, so he could not recount what the atmosphere felt like.

Andrii Yermak, Head of the Ukrainian President’s Office, had a phone conversation with Hungarian Foreign Minister Szijjártó last week. But after this discussion, Orbán called the Spanish Presidency of the EU Council and asked that the topic of beginning talks with Ukraine not be brought up at the summit.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán intends to block all EU decisions on Ukraine which are planned to be considered at the summit of leaders on 14-15 December.

The Guardian has reported that Orbán’s allies will hold a closed-door meeting with Republicans in Washington to seek an end to US military support for Ukraine.