Orban offered to hold talks on Ukraine between Russia and the United States

Negotiations between Russia and the United States are required to resolve the Ukrainian crisis, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said.

“Actually [для прекращения украинского конфликта] we need not Russian-Ukrainian, but Russian-American negotiations,” Orban said (quote according to TASS). According to him, such negotiations could take place in Budapest. “But the main thing is that such negotiations should take place at all,” he concluded.

White House National Security Council Strategic Communications Coordinator John Kirby formerly declaredthat the US position on the Ukrainian conflict has not changed: Washington still believes that negotiations on a settlement with Moscow can only begin at the initiative of Kyiv.

Presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov noted that Russia is open to negotiations with the United States on Ukraine, but the possibility of holding them is complicated by the fact that Washington still does not recognize new territories as part of Russia.

Since the beginning of hostilities, the parties have held negotiations several times. The first three face-to-face meetings took place in Belarus in February-March, and the fourth round of the Russian-Ukrainian dialogue was held on March 29 in Istanbul. Later, the process was frozen, since Ukraine withdrew from it. Also in Ukraine, a law has been passed that prohibits negotiations with Russia.