Budapest, Feb 26: Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs Peter Szijjarto has offered Budapest as a venue for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine.
“Due to a dispute on the possible location– in Minsk, Warsaw — of peace talks, I recommended Budapest to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and to Andriy Yermak, chief of the Cabinet of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky,” Szijjarto said in a video message posted on his Facebook on Friday.
He said neither party had rejected the proposition during telephonic conversations. Budapest can serve as a safe place for both the Russian and Ukrainian delegations, the Hungarian said.
“The sooner talks begin, the sooner there will be peace and the fewer people will have to die in the war,” he said.
Szijjarto was speaking from the airport in Brussels where he participated in an extraordinary meeting of the European Union’s Foreign Ministers.
The Ukraine President on Friday reiterated his call to Russian President Vladimir Putin to hold talks to stop the conflict. “Fighting is going on all over Ukraine. Let’s sit down at the negotiating table,” Zelensky was quoted by the Interfax-Ukraine news agency as saying. Putin said Moscow was ready to negotiate with Ukraine, Russia’s RIA Novosti news agency tweeted on Friday.
