Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto will meet his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmytro Kuleba, in Uzhhorod, western Ukraine on January 29 to prepare a possible first proper meeting between the country’s two leaders.

At a press conference, Szijjarto said the two sides would discuss matters of bilateral cooperation "from start to finish" and weigh steps for a successful meeting between Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

At an international press conference last month, Orban confirmed that he had accepted the Ukrainian president's invitation for bilateral talks. Hungary’s strongman, who has maintained close political and economic ties with Russia, has yet to meet Zelenskiy in person other than a few brief encounters.

The announcement comes amid signs that Hungary might be prepared to make concessions on approving European Union aid to Ukraine. Orban vetoed a four-year €50bn aid package at the European Council summit in December.

According to news reports, the EU has proposed a potential compromise in which, if Hungary drops its veto now, there would be another vote on the EU aid programme half-way through its four-year term in 2025. This would enable Orban to potentially exercise another veto then. Budapest could also pull an "emergency brake" to hold a discussion at the European Council if it had concerns at any point.

Hungary may yet demand more concessions to drop its veto. Orban has also asked for expanding the timeframe to tap RRF funds, which remain frozen for Hungary, because of his regime's violation of EU values.  This would give Hungary more time to use them, once they are unfrozen.  

Szijjarto stressed a meeting between  Orban and  Zelenskiy ahead of the next European Council summit on February 1 would only make sense if it promised "significant results," adding that it would have to be "prepared accordingly.

Szijjarto spoke in conditional terms about whether Andriy Yermak, the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine, would attend the meeting, but later the Ukraine’s foreign ministry confirmed these reports to 444.hu.

The main topics of the meeting include the organisation of a meeting between the two leaders to advance crucial EU decisions for Ukraine and to improve bilateral relations, spokesman Oleg Nikolenko told 444.hu.

The timing of the talks between the two foreign ministers suggests that it is unlikely that the Zelenskiy-Orban meeting will take place before the key EU summit, which will try to reach a deal on the Ukraine aid.

Previously Hungary had proposed splitting the Ukraine aid package into four annual envelopes, worth €12.5bn each, that EU leaders would need to give their unanimous approval for every year until the cash pot is exhausted. This would have run counter to the Ukraine Facility's aim to provide long-term, predictable financing to the war-torn country at a critical time, because it would give Hungary a potential annual veto.

The EU has also been considering potential workarounds to avoid the Hungarian veto, including prolonging the existing 2023 loan scheme for up to a year, raising common debt backed by national guarantees, or creating a special financial vehicle to hand out grants.

Diplomatic relations between Hungary and Ukraine had already soured before the Russian invasion of Ukraine after Kyiv adopted controversial legislation on minority language use and education.

To ease tensions, Kyiv recently passed a law protecting the rights of minorities in Ukraine, a step that the Hungarian government, however, deemed insufficient. There are more than 100,000 ethnic Hungarians living in Transcarpathia.