Orbán arrives in Kyiv

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán arrived in Kyiv on the morning of 2 July, making it his first visit in many years.  

Reports say a motorcade of numerous cars has arrived at the Hungarian embassy.

The newspaper recalls that Orban has not not visited Ukraine either during the term of Volodymyr Zelenskyy or the previous president, Petro Poroshenko. Orban last visited Kyiv in 2012 to meet with the then president Viktor Yanukovych. 

Orban is expected to hold talks with President Zelenskyy and other top officials on Tuesday. 

Late last week, Orban and Zelenskyy crossed paths on the sidelines of the EU leaders' summit in Brussels. 

At that time, European Pravda found out that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán may meet with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy next week (i.e. this week) to take a step towards improving relations between Kyiv and Budapest under pressure from the EU.

Prior to this, as part of the agreement to launch negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU, Ukraine agreed to meet a number of Hungary's conditions, as reported by European Pravda, but some of these conditions are impossible to fulfil, and it is clear that this will require agreement at the level of the leaders.

On 1 July, Hungary began its six-month rotating presidency of the EU Council, taking over the role from Belgium, and Zelenskyy congratulated Budapest on its presidency.