BUDAPEST: Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban has invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to a Budapest summit meeting to discuss progress toward an immediate cease-fire between Russia and Ukraine.

"I urged President Putin that he declare an immediate ceasefire," Orban said during an international press conference on Wednesday, following his overwhelming victory in the country's general elections on April 3, which gave him a fourth consecutive term as prime minister.

Orban said he spoke with Putin on the phone on Wednesday morning, who congratulated him on his election victory. "I know (the ceasefire) will not happen on its own," Orban said. "So I asked Putin, the presidents of Ukraine and France, and the German chancellor to Budapest as soon as possible."

The summit's goal would be to achieve a swift cease-fire in Ukraine. "They should hold talks here in Budapest with one purpose in mind: an agreement on a quick ceasefire, not peace negotiations, which would take longer." He further said that Hungary is "obsessed" with peace since there are more than 200,000 ethnic Hungarians in Ukraine's Transcarpathia region, and Budapest bears "primary responsibility" for their lives.

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