Russia blames war on NATO as it pounds Ukraine, demands territory for talks

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has pressed on with his shuttle diplomacy to achieve a ceasefire in Ukraine, visiting Beijing on Monday after passing through Kyiv and Moscow.

Ukrainian allies NATO and the European Union disavowed the mission, saying Orban was not undertaking an initiative on their behalf. Russia, after initially dismissing Orban’s effort, said it could prove “very valuable”.

“He has shown his political will for dialogue. We take it very, very positively. We believe it can be very useful,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday.

That marked a change from his initial assessment.

Orban visited Kyiv on July 2, immediately after Hungary assumed the rotating presidency of the European Union, and Moscow three days later.

Peskov said at the time, “we don’t expect anything” from Orban’s visit to Kyiv, adding that he would be obliged to serve “Brussels’s interests rather than Hungary’s national interests”.

Orban, a populist who is often at odds with the EU, has been calling for a ceasefire as a first step towards negotiating a peace. Both Moscow and Kyiv have rejected it, saying it would give the other side an opportunity to regroup militarily.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has placed harsh conditions on any acceptance of a ceasefire.

“We need to ensure that the opposite party agrees to take demilitarisation steps that are irreversible and acceptable to the Russian Federation,” Russian state news agency Tass quoted him as saying in Astana, Kazakhstan, where a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation was being held. “A ceasefire without reaching this agreement is impossible.”

Putin spelled out his terms in a speech at the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on June 14.

“Ukrainian troops should be completely withdrawn from the Donetsk, Lugansk people’s republics, Kherson and Zaporizhia regions,” he said, referring to two republics proclaimed by Russian-backed separatists that are not internationally recognised and one of which is a region known in Ukraine as Luhansk.

Putin also specified that Ukraine should cede the entirety of these regions, which Russian troops only partially occupy.

“As soon as Kyiv declares that they are ready for such a decision and begin a real withdrawal of troops from these regions as well as officially notify of the rejection of plans to join NATO, from our side immediately, literally at the same moment, the order will be followed by a ceasefire and start of negotiations,” the president said.