Orban sends secret letter to EU leaders after meeting with Putin

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban sent a secret letter to European Council President Charles Michel. In it, in particular, he spoke about Putin's confidence in Ukraine's defeat.

This was reported by RBC-Ukraine with reference to the Sistema investigative project.

The letter is dated July 5 and was sent from Azerbaijan, where Orban went after meeting with Putin. According to the media outlet, the document is not intended for the general public. The journalists received it from a European official. Its authenticity was confirmed by two other EU officials.

Orban writes that during his trips to Ukraine and Russia, he did not speak on behalf of the entire EU, but only wanted to learn about the positions of the warring parties. Orban "sparingly mentions Zelenskyy's position, but recounts Putin's views in detail."

According to Orban's information in the letter, the Russian authorities are convinced that "time is not on Ukraine's side, but on the side of the Russian forces." In the conversation with the Hungarian prime minister, Putin did not mention Russian losses at the front, but he talked a lot about his calculations of Ukrainian losses.

"The Russian president was surprised that the Ukrainian president rejected the temporary ceasefire. According to the Russian president, they are ready to consider any ceasefire proposal that does not serve the covert redeployment and regrouping of Ukrainian forces," Orban writes.

Orban also notes in the letter that Moscow and Kyiv are ready for peace talks only with the participation of both sides. After the peace summit in Switzerland, Ukraine announced that it would invite Russia to the next summit. This is the only point in the letter where Orban describes Ukraine's position on the talks in detail.

Author - Dmitriy Levchenko, 09/07/2024