Hungarian foreign minister criticises EU's indifference to Orbán's Christmas truce proposal

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó has criticised his EU counterparts for their lack of support for Viktor Orbán's Christmas truce proposal at a foreign ministers' meeting on 16 December.

According to Telex, Szijjártó argued that the EU is ignoring the situation on the battlefield, where Russian forces have accelerated their offensive, because it is continuing to back its "current strategy" (though he did not specify which strategy he meant).

"They don’t even care that Christmas is approaching," the Hungarian minister added, noting that no one at the meeting, including Ukraine's foreign minister, supported the idea of a Christmas truce.

According to Szijjártó, some ministers backed the idea of a ceasefire in general, but others "explicitly opposed it". Only Slovakia’s foreign minister supported a diplomatic resolution to the war, Szijjártó claimed.

He explained the logic behind the proposed ceasefire like this: "If there are no combat operations, then there is no Russian offensive."

On 11 December, Viktor Orbán claimed that he had suggested a Christmas ceasefire and a large-scale prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia, but that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had rejected the proposal.

Later, Péter Szijjártó effectively confirmed that this was false, as Orbán had not spoken with Zelenskyy and could not have known his response to Hungary's suggestion.