Visiting Kiev on August 23, Hungarian President Katalin Novák told Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky in Kiev it is time “to sit down at the negotiating table,” she said in an interview with Index website.

Novak told Zelensky she “does not see a military solution that would lead to sustainable peace (in Ukraine) in the long term,” she said.

“Therefore, it is necessary to sit down at the negotiating table. I expressed this strong opinion to President (Zelensky) both publicly and privately,” Novak said, adding that Hungary would join international efforts to find ways to resolve the Ukrainian conflict.

Novák “told President Zelensky why peace is extremely important to us Hungarians,” she said. “Europe and Hungary are closer to war than many people think. An escalation can happen at any moment. We – who were born in peace – cannot even imagine what a war is like! On the one hand, we think: it is merely the past, it cannot be the threatening future, on the other hand, most people know weapons from the world of video games. Now bloody reality has knocked on our door.”

When the interviewer noted that Zelensky “is less committed to peace than the Hungarians,” Novak said: “The Ukrainian president represents Ukrainian interests, the Hungarian president – Hungarian interests. This is how it should be.”

Russian foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova commented on Novák’s remarks, saying that “Hungarian President Novák urged (Zelensky) to sit down at the negotiating table. Katalin Novák probably does not know that Zelensky has prohibited himself by law to sit down at the negotiating table. He probably prefers to be lying down.”