Zelensky rejected the ceasefire proposal, says a top Hungarian diplomat – Lumea

MOSCOW, December 12. /TASS/. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in a telephone conversation that Vladimir Zelensky rejected Budapest’s proposal for a temporary ceasefire and prisoner exchange, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

“Following up on an earlier phone conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Viktor Orban, following the Hungarian leader’s discussion of the situation surrounding Ukraine with US President-elect Donald Trump, Peter Szijjarto said that Hungary’s proposal for a temporary cessation of fire on the “Ukrainian Front” and a large-scale prisoner exchange was rejected by Zelensky, Budapest learned through regime officials in Kiev. On the same day, Viktor Orban made a statement in this regard,” the ministry noted.

The diplomatic agency said that, for his part, Sergei Lavrov stressed that this is “far from the first instance where initiatives from truly peace-oriented countries, including Hungary and Turkey, which are humanitarian in nature and aim to ensure uninterrupted supplies of food products across the Black Sea and the security of nuclear power plants have been rejected by the Kiev regime, despite earlier signals to the contrary.”

The Russian Foreign Ministry reiterated the Russian side’s commitment to a realistic resolution of the conflict, as underlined by Russian President Vladimir Putin on June 14. “The ministers agreed to continue close and trustful dialogue on various aspects of the Ukrainian crisis, taking into account various assessments and ideas offered by other countries,” the Russian foreign policy agency noted.