Magyar proposes Budapest as venue for peace talks on Ukraine

Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar has said that Budapest is ready to host negotiations on settling the war between Russia and Ukraine.

He outlined his position in an interview with the German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, described as his first interview with the German press since taking office.

“We can offer diplomatic and humanitarian support, and Hungary could serve as a venue for negotiations,” Magyar told FAZ.

Magyar identified three areas in which Budapest could contribute to a settlement: diplomatic support, humanitarian assistance, and hosting talks on its territory. At the same time, he was cautious in assessing Hungary’s actual weight in any peace process.

“Hungary cannot play a decisive role here. This is a matter for the great powers,” he said, adding that he does not consider weapons alone to be a guarantee of security.

For Budapest, such a proposal is not entirely new. Under Viktor Orbán’s government, Hungary had already twice offered to host peace talks — most recently, then-Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó repeated the offer in August 2025. However, Magyar’s version carries a different diplomatic tone. Since taking office as prime minister in May — following his Tisza party’s election victory over Orbán — Magyar has set a course to return Hungary to the European mainstream. He has identified as priorities restoring access to EU funds and ending Budapest’s longstanding policy of blocking Ukraine’s accession to the European Union.

Magyar also called on Europe to maintain “pragmatic relations with Russia after the end of the war against Ukraine.” A few days before the interview was published in FAZ, he held a joint press conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin.

The proposal comes amid ongoing efforts by European allies to build a framework for a possible settlement of the conflict. In January, a coalition of more than 30 states gathered in Paris agreed on multilayered security guarantees for Ukraine, with France and the United Kingdom committing to deploy troops and establish military bases on Ukrainian territory following any ceasefire.

Talks between Russia and Ukraine mediated by the United States have so far yielded no breakthrough, with Moscow and Kyiv still deadlocked on territorial issues. Whether the warring parties would be willing to accept Hungary as a negotiating venue remains an open question.