What did Orbán's Kyiv visit change on 4 July 2024?
A look back at the diplomatic and military picture around 4 July 2024, as a Hungarian ceasefire proposal met rejection and allies pledged aid.
What did the diplomatic picture look like on 4 July 2024, two days after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán made his first visit to Kyiv since the start of the Russian invasion? On 2 July, he proposed a ceasefire plan, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy rejected it.
The visit was the opening stage of what Orbán described as "peace missions", uncoordinated meetings that, as the background shows, were to continue later in July with a trip to Moscow to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, then Beijing for talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, and a visit to the United States. None of those later stops had taken place by 4 July 2024.
War continued alongside diplomacy
The proposal arrived while attacks went on across Ukraine. On 2 July, Russian artillery and drones hit Nikopol in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, killing two people and injuring nine. On 3 July, Russian drones and missiles hit civilian infrastructure in Dnipro, killing at least five people and injuring 53. Guided bombs and missiles across Kharkiv Oblast the same day killed one person and injured at least 14.
The Russian-held Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant was also affected on 3 July. Three kamikaze drones attacked an electrical substation serving the plant, injuring eight workers and causing forest fires near the plant's switchyard. Enerhodar was left without power or water.
Allies looked to 2025
Against that backdrop, NATO nations agreed on 3 July to grant Ukraine €40 billion (US$43 billion) in military aid in 2025. The commitment looked ahead to the following year, a contrast with a ceasefire plan that Kyiv had turned down a day earlier.
What the contrast showed
The sequence set two approaches side by side. One was a visit by a Hungarian leader offering a ceasefire plan, which Ukraine's president declined. The other was a pledge by NATO nations of substantial military support for the year ahead. Meanwhile, strikes on Dnipro, Kharkiv Oblast, Nikopol and the area around Zaporizhzhia showed the continuing cost to civilians and infrastructure, and the drone attack near the nuclear plant left workers injured and a town without basic services.
