Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban made a whirlwind visit to Ukraine on the day he took over the EU presidency. He brought a peace plan with him, and many believe that the trip was not entirely on his own accord. With Biden out of the picture, the Americans need to close the deal as quickly as possible. And there is a point in sending a proxy when you have terrible relations with the Russians.
Hungary is in NATO, and it has stable relations with both Ukraine and Russia. The Hungarian minority in western Ukraine has demanded many political dialogues, as their rights have deteriorated significantly since 2014. And it is better to send a Hungarian than a Turk, who has also been trying to broker peace, or if the Chinese step up and start offering to help with negotiations. That would look bad.
It could even be the confident Trump camp that asked Orban to go to Kiev, in which case it is likely that peace will come soon after Trump wins the election in the autumn, and he can reap the benefits.
The war is effectively over; the Russians are slowly taking village after village, and unless a peace negotiation is started, they will continue. Now is the time to stop development, while Ukraine still has a piece of coastline with harbour towns, before they too are incorporated into the Russian Federation. If the Russians continue, there will soon be only a sliver of the country left, and if negotiations start at that stage, the conditions will be radically worse.
In addition, the whole idea of Ukraine is in danger of disintegrating. We know that those in the east of the country identify themselves as Russians, those in the west have a Ukrainian identity, and those in the centre are turning to the wind. Many young men have died, to what end? We can expect a growing bitterness towards the Western powers, who misled them, and a reconnection with Russia, which is and remains a brotherly people. The United States, as we know, is on the other side of the ocean, and it is only a matter of time before they abandon this this war endeavour as well.
