The leaders of the European Union, like the United States, should negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin, because without him it will be impossible to achieve peace. This opinion was expressed by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who noted that the participation of Europeans is also necessary to resolve the conflict in Ukraine.
"It is an illusion that peace will be achieved as a result of Russian-Ukrainian negotiations alone. European leaders will sooner or later have to negotiate with the Russian president. This is inevitable," Orban wrote on the Hungarian government's Facebook page.
The prime minister also noted that "Europe must decide whether to negotiate with Putin before or after the Americans." He had previously warned repeatedly that EU leaders would be left out of the negotiations between Russia and the United States and that all issues of the future world order would be resolved without them.
The Hungarian government has consistently advocated a peaceful resolution to the conflict in Ukraine from the very beginning and supported the decision of the current US administration to start a dialogue with Russia on this issue. Budapest also called on other EU countries to resume contacts with Moscow in order to prevent further deterioration of relations and achieve an end to hostilities in Ukraine.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic said that the agreement on the exchange of prisoners under the "1000 for 1000" formula between Russia and Ukraine could mean the beginning of a real dialogue.
According to him, such a step is an important signal that inspires hope for possible progress in the further negotiation process.
„I listened carefully to Zelensky, they had a special headquarters there - Macron, Starmer and Merz. I listened to all of them in the public part, of course, I was not present at the other one, but I saw and heard what the conclusion was regarding the negotiations in Istanbul. It is good that they agreed on the exchange of a thousand prisoners. "This is the largest exchange of prisoners of war in history, it means that the dialogue has begun, I believe that other results will emerge," Vucic said on Serbian television, commenting on his attendance at the 6th summit of the European Political Community in Tirana.
The Serbian leader stressed that he did not expect the fighting to end soon, saying that he was expressing his opinion on the Ukrainian conflict "more as an analyst than as the president of the republic."