Ukraine's Zelenskiy meets Hungary's Pro-Russian Orban in Argentina

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he had a "frank" conversation with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on the sidelines of the inauguration of Argentine President Javier Milei on Sunday (December 10).

A video on the Argentine Senate's YouTube channel showed Zelenskiy and Orban conversing for about 20 seconds as they mingled with other guests in the Argentine parliament, ahead of an EU summit on Dec. 14-15, set to decide whether to start membership talks with Ukraine.

" It was as frank as possible - and obviously, it was about our European affairs," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address posted on the Telegram channel early on Monday (December 11).

The meeting took place against a backdrop of Orban's threatening to block more European Union financial support to Kyiv, his opposition of Ukraine's entry to the bloc and the White House intensifying its push for Kyiv aid after Republicans blocked an emergency spending bill to fund the war. Orban's press chief Bertalan Havasi confirmed the meeting in an email that did not address whether the Hungarian leader would continue to oppose Ukraine's entry to the European Union.