The Kremlin said Putin’s remarks came in a phone conversation on Wednesday with Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, who seems to be positioning himself as a potential peacemaker.

The hour-long call, apparently requested by Orbán - one of Putin's few sympathizers among EU leaders - involved what Moscow described as a “thorough exchange of views on Ukrainian issues.”

“Viktor Orban expressed interest in facilitating a joint search for political and diplomatic solutions to the crisis, including in the context of his contacts with a number of Western leaders,” a Kremlin press release said.

“In turn, Vladimir Putin set forth his principled assessments of current developments around Ukraine and the destructive stance of the Kiev regime, which continues to rule out the possibility of a peaceful resolution to the conflict.”

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, had long insisted that his country’s territorial integrity must be respected in any future peace deal with Putin, whose forces launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

But with swathes of eastern and southern Ukraine currently under Russian occupation, Kyiv recently floated an interim solution, whereby only areas under its government’s rule would effectively come “under the NATO umbrella" for the time being.

Such an arrangement could lead to the end of the “hot phase” of the war, Zelenskyy told Sky News.

Orbán’s call to Putin came on the back of recent comments by Hungary’s foreign minister about launching a so-called Ukraine “peace mission.”

“I had an hour-long phone conversation this morning with President Putin,” Orbán posted on X following the leaders’ conversation.

“These are the most dangerous weeks of the Russia Ukraine War. We are taking every possible diplomatic step to argue in favour of a ceasefire and peace talks.”

News website Politico noted that Orbán met U.S. President-elect Donald Trump at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in recent days.

Russia, according to the website, has denied that Orbán delivered messages to Putin on behalf of the future American leader, who has pledged to secure a peace deal in Ukraine within hours of taking office in January.

Orbán is seen as a close ally of both Trump and Putin within the European Union and has consistently called for peace talks and refused to provide military support to Ukraine.

His unilateral diplomacy, including a controversial visit to Moscow in July, has drawn sharp criticism from fellow EU leaders, particularly since Hungary currently holds the bloc’s rotating presidency.

The Kremlin said that Orbán and Putin also discussed energy cooperation, underscoring Hungary’s reliance on Russian supplies. This relationship has persisted despite EU efforts to reduce dependency on Moscow in response to the war.