Ukraine updates: Orban says Trump would be 'peace broker'

The Kremlin has responded cautiously to an apparent invitation from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for Russia to attend a future "peace summit," saying that Moscow first needs to "understand what he means."

After Russia was excluded from a high-level international gathering convened by Kyiv in Switzerland last month, Zelenskyy said on Monday that "representatives of Russia should be at the second summit."

In response, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the Zvezda television channel on Tuesday: "The first peace summit was not a peace summit at all. So perhaps it is necessary to first understand what he means."

The United States said it welcomed Ukraine's decision to invite Russian representatives but expressed doubt over Moscow's willingness to talk.

"We've always supported diplomacy when Ukraine is ready, but it has never been clear that the Kremlin is ready for actual diplomacy," said US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller.

While Kyiv is demanding that Russian forces retreat entirely beyond Ukraine's internationally recognized borders, Moscow is intent on keeping territory it has conquered since February 2022 — some 20% of the country.

On Tuesday, the chief of Russia's general staff, General Valery Gerasimov, visited the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine and praised troops for capturing the village of Urozhaine, close to the state border with Zaporizhzhia.

The Kyiv-headquartered Ukroboronprom State Concern has announced the construction of a new ammunition factory in Ukraine in collaboration with Czech firearms manufacturer Sellier & Bellot.

The project was announced during a visit to Prague on Tuesday by Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal.

"A new cartridge factory will be built in Ukraine," he said, also announcing an agreement to produce Czech assault rifles.

Since the Russian invasion, Ukroboronprom has relocated much of its production abroad.

The Czech Republic has been a strong supporter of Ukraine, leading an initiative earlier this year to procure artillery shells from outside the European Union and pass them on to the Ukrainian army.

Ukrainian power grid operator Ukrenergo has imposed unscheduled power shutdowns in seven regions after equipment failures linked to Russian attacks coincided with record summer temperatures.

The power cuts were imposed in the Kharkiv, Sumy, Poltava, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk and Kirovohrad regions, leaving residents without electricity to power air conditioning or fans as temperatures surpassed 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in some areas.

After Moscow's hopes for a quick victory following the full-scale invasion in February 2022 gave way to a slow and grinding war, Russian forces have systematically targeted Ukraine's energy sector with missile and drone strikes.

These usually aimed at crippling Ukraine during the freezing winter. However, attacks on energy infrastructure have intensified through spring and summer this year.

Kyiv has tried to respond by saving energy with scheduled power cuts and with large-scale electricity imports from the European Union and Moldova, but with limited success.

European Union finance ministers have criticized the current Hungarian presidency of the bloc and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's unilateral attempts at diplomacy over Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine.

"I'm both angry and quite sad about the start of the Hungarian presidency," said Swedish Finance Minister Elisabeth Svantesson at a regular EU finance meeting on Tuesday.  "That Mr Orban went to Putin and Moscow is an insult not only to Ukraine but to all other 26 member states."

German Finance Minister Christian Lindner said that Hungary's "freelance diplomacy was greeted with great disappointment," adding: "In Ukraine, the peace and freedom of the whole of Europe are being defended. Hungary should know who its real friends are."

At the meeting, Hungary's Finance Minister Mihaly Varga presented Budapest's seven priorities during its six-month presidency — which did not appear to include maintaining the EU's strong support for Kyiv.

"We stay strongest when we're united, especially on our support to Ukraine, and this has to stay on the top of our agenda," criticized Dutch finance minister Eelco Heinen.

On Ukraine, Varga said only that Hungary was "ready to ensure the opportunity for a regular exchange of views on the economic and financial impact of the war in Ukraine."

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said that former US President and current Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump would "be ready to act as a peace broker" between Ukraine and Russia "immediately," if reelected.

In a letter addressed to European Council President Charles Michel and shared with EU leaders, Orban claimed that Trump "has detailed and well-founded plans for this" which he would implement "shortly after his election victory" and even before his inauguration.

Orban drafted the letter after holding talks with Trump in Washington last week, his fourth stop on a self-styled "peace mission" which also saw him meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

It was not clear what a Trump peace deal would look like, but he has previously been critical of US support for Kyiv and his supporters in Congress held up a key military aid package for months.

Hungary took over the rotating EU presidency this month, but other EU leaders have stressed that Orban has no mandate to speak on behalf of the 27-nation bloc and that whatever views he presented were his own. The European Commission responded to Orban's rogue diplomacy on Tuesday by announcing a partial boycott of meetings during the Hungarian presidency.

A long-time supporter of Trump, right-wing nationalist leader Orban is also the only EU leader to maintain ties with President Putin. Under Orban, Budapest has refused to provide military aid to Kyiv, despite Hungary sharing a border with Ukraine.

mf/ab (Reuters, dpa, AFP, AP)