Orban personally wanted to come to Moscow to talk to Putin

The initiative for the visit to Moscow came from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Kremlin official representative Dmitry Peskov said, TASS reports.

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According to Peskov, the proposal to arrange the visit came "literally the day before yesterday.”

"This was an initiative of the Hungarian side,” the Kremlin representative said.

In turn, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that Budapest warned NATO about Orban's visit to Moscow. He also expressed hope that there would be an opportunity to discuss these negotiations at the summit of the alliance next week in Washington.

Viktor Orban, the head of the Hungarian government, arrived in Russia on July 5 to continue his peacekeeping mission.

Orban and Putin hold open and frank conversation

During the meeting in Moscow, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban did not convey any messages from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the Russian President, Putin's aide Yuri Ushakov said.

"[Orban] did not convey any messages,” Ushakov said, answering a corresponding question from a journalist.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban had a frank conversation on all issues related to the conflict in Ukraine, Ushakov added, TASS reports.

"The Prime Minister and the President know each other well, so they had a completely frank conversation on all pressing issues,” he said.

According to Ushakov, the Ukrainian conflict was among the main topics, but the politicians also discussed bilateral issues.

Earlier, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Putin and Orban could communicate without delegations. If the leaders consider it necessary, they could have a tete-a-tete conversation, Peskov said.

The talks between Putin and Orban lasted for nearly three hours.