Hungary offers capital as venue for Russia-Ukraine peace talks

Budapest can serve as a safe place for both the Russian and Ukrainian negotiating delegations, the top Hungarian diplomat said

Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto offered Budapest as a venue for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine late on Friday night on his Facebook account, Qazet.az reports.

"Due to a dispute on the possible location -- in Minsk, Warsaw -- of peace talks, I recommended Budapest to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and to Andriy Yermak, chief of cabinet of President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky," Szijjarto said in a video message posted on his Facebook page.

He added that neither party rejected the proposition during the telephone conversations.

Budapest can serve as a safe place for both the Russian and Ukrainian negotiating delegations, the top Hungarian diplomat said.

"The sooner talks begin, the sooner there will be peace and the fewer people will have to die in the war," he said.

Szijjarto was speaking from the airport in Brussels, where he participated in an extraordinary meeting of European Union foreign ministers.

From Belgium, he was traveling to New York to discuss the conflict with United Nations leaders.