Orban Urges Zelensky to Consider Cease-Fire Before Russian Peace Talks

Welcome back to World Brief, where we’re looking at tense Hungarian-Ukrainian relations, the Netherlands’ first far-right government, and a deadly stampede in India.

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Reordering Priorities

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban kicked off his six-month presidency of the European Union’s Council of Ministers with a trip to Ukraine on Tuesday. “The aim of the Hungarian presidency is to contribute to solving the challenges ahead of the European Union. That’s why my first trip was to Kyiv,” he wrote on Facebook.

This was Orban’s first trip to Ukraine in more than a decade. While there, he said he supported Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s 10-point peace proposal, which was previously discussed during a Switzerland-hosted peace summit in May. However, Orban urged Zelensky to consider ordering a truce before holding any peace negotiations rather than waiting until after the talks, saying, “A cease-fire connected to a deadline would give a chance to speed up peace talks.”

The ongoing war is “the most important issue for Europe,” Orban told Zelensky.

Zelensky’s initial proposal rejects any cessation of hostilities while Russian troops occupy Ukrainian soil, arguing that such a concession would give Moscow the opportunity to rearm and redouble its attacks. Over the past few weeks, Russia has pursued a heavy assault on eastern Ukraine, and on Monday, Ukraine’s security service said it had foiled a coup attempt by an unnamed anti-Ukraine group that would have “played into Russia’s hands” by triggering a riot in Kyiv to distract from efforts to seize parliament.

Orban and Zelensky also discussed improving bilateral cooperation on Tuesday. Orban said Budapest would like to help modernize Kyiv’s economy, and Zelensky announced that Hungary would open a Ukrainian-language school for refugees living there.

Yet tensions between the two Eastern European nations remain fraught. Budapest has repeatedly accused Kyiv of infringing on the rights of around 150,000 ethnic Hungarians living in Ukraine’s western Zakarpattia region. Hungary points to a 2017 Ukrainian law that requires all schools to teach students older than age 10 in the Ukrainian language, which Budapest sees as a breach of the ethnic minority’s rights. Kyiv denies these allegations but has said it is open to discussing them.

At the same time, Orban remains a longtime supporter of Moscow and is the only European leader to have met with Russian President Vladimir Putin since the war began in February 2022. Budapest keeps diplomatic channels with Moscow open, and Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has made at least five trips to Russia over the past two years—most recently to an economic forum in St. Petersburg last month. Hungary does not allow donated Western weapons to be transported to Ukraine over the two countries’ shared border, and it continues to oppose EU sanctions on Russia.

Yet Ukraine needs Hungary’s help, as the EU requires unanimous agreement to approve financial and military support for Kyiv. Orban left a voting room last December to abstain from opening Ukraine’s accession bid. And last week, the EU officially began membership talks with Kyiv in Brussels.

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What We’re Following

Europe’s far right. The Netherlands swore in its first far-right government on Tuesday after nearly 14 years under centrist Prime Minister Mark Rutte. The right-wing Party for Freedom, led by Geert Wilders, won the biggest share of votes in Dutch elections last November, largely for its anti-immigrant, pro-Russia platform. Former intelligence chief Dick Schoof will likely take on the role of prime minister; he has no party affiliation and no political experience. Rutte will move on later this year to become NATO’s next secretary-general.

France is also facing a far-right reckoning. On Tuesday, more than 200 opponents of the right-wing National Rally (RN) party pulled out of the second round of snap parliamentary elections, which are scheduled for this Sunday. They hope that by withdrawing their candidacy, they can better unify their voting blocs to obstruct the National Rally’s projected win. The RN is projected to fall just short of securing a majority in parliament during the first round of elections last Sunday, and on Tuesday, far-right figure Marine Le Pen said the party would only lead the government if it had an absolute majority or close to it.

Deadly crush. More than 115 people were killed during a stampede at a Hindu religious event in India’s Uttar Pradesh state on Tuesday. Local officials believe that heat and overcrowding may have set off the crush, which mostly killed women and children. Others are saying that people flooded a too-narrow exit when a dust storm blew in. The tent where the event took place was permitted to hold 5,000 people, but initial reports suggest that the crowd may have been larger.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said his administration was “engaged in relief and rescue work.” Yet, some lawmakers have been quick to blame state and federal governments for failing at crowd management. “Every year, these kinds of incidents keep repeating themselves, and we learn nothing,” Indian parliamentarian Manoj Kumar Jha said. In 2016, a stampede killed at least 24 people at a Hindu religious ceremony, and in 2013, more than 100 people were killed during a Hindu religious procession.

Protests in Kenya. Riot police apprehended protesters in Nairobi and across Kenya on Tuesday during the most widespread demonstrations since deadly clashes erupted there last week. Authorities fired tear gas grenades and charged the crowd while carrying wooden clubs. The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights reported that 39 Kenyans have been killed in demonstrations and clashes with police since June 18.

Protesters called on Tuesday for Kenyan President William Ruto to resign despite him previously conceding to some of the marchers’ main demands. Last Wednesday, Ruto agreed not to sign off on a controversial finance bill that would have increased taxes on several goods and services to try to reduce the nation’s debt crisis. Ruto announced on Sunday that Nairobi will have to borrow more money to keep the government running.

Odds and Ends

Bostonians looking for new ways to bring a little joy and levity into their lives took to the streets in late April with a simple demand. And last Wednesday, the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority delivered by adding googly eyes to five trains on the city’s T line. “We’re big believers that the eyes are the window to the soul and that the soul of a city is its transit system, so we tried to connect those dots and give all T riders a new, fun way to connect emotionally with such a cornerstone part of the city,” march co-organizer Arielle Lok told NPR.

The post Orban Urges Zelensky to Consider Cease-Fire Before Russian Peace Talks appeared first on Foreign Policy.