Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on a self-styled “peace mission” on Friday, just days after he visited Kyiv, triggering condemnations from European Union leaders who said he had no mandate to represent the bloc.

The Hungarian leader, who took over the E.U.’s six-month rotating presidency on July 1, said ahead of the meeting that he had no intention of speaking for the 27-member bloc.

But standing next to the Russian leader, Orban said that his E.U. role offers a special context to Friday’s meeting. “The number of those countries that can still talk to both sides in the war is starting to dwindle,” Orban added.

For his part, Putin made reference to Orban’s Kyiv visit, saying he would be keen to inform the Hungarian leader of the “nuances” of the conflict.

Putin said he set out Russia’s position on a possible settlement in a speech to the Russian Foreign Ministry last month, in which he demanded Kyiv withdraw its forces from four regions partially occupied by his troops and abandon its goal of joining NATO.

Orban’s journey to the Russian capital provoked a sharp response from the rest of the E.U., which had already been worried about how Hungary would approach its presidency. “Appeasement will not stop Putin,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a post on X after Orban landed.

Lithuania’s president, Gitanas Nauseda, went further. “If you truly seek peace, you don’t shake hands with a bloody dictator, you put all your efforts to support #Ukraine,” he said on X.

Orban used a visit to Kyiv on Tuesday — his first since the Russian invasion began in 2022 — to pitch a cease-fire deal to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Although the Ukrainian leader lauded the trip as a “good signal” from Budapest, he told Bloomberg Television on Wednesday that a cease-fire proposal was a non-starter for Kyiv.

Orban, who has provoked ire from European counterparts for blocking aid at times to Ukraine and maintaining his ties with Moscow, said after the meeting with Zelenskyy that he was preparing a report for E.U. leaders.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told reporters that Orban gave him no advance notice about his plan to visit Russia. “The European Council is represented by Charles Michel in terms of foreign policy — and not Hungary,” he said, adding: “Ukraine can rely on our support.”

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