Robert Fico, the Slovakian prime minister, said he would have loved to have joined Hungary’s Viktor Orbán on his trip to meet Vladimir Putin if his health had permitted it.

Mr Orbán angered western EU and Nato allies when he travelled to Moscow on Friday to meet the Russian president, whose country invaded neighbouring Ukraine in February 2022.

He visited Kyiv and Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president, earlier this week, just after his country had taken over the rotating six-month presidency of the European Union.

In his first speaking appearance after surviving an assassination attempt on May 15 Mr Fico said: “I want to express my admiration for the Hungarian premier for travelling to Kyiv and Moscow without hesitating. If my state of health allowed me to go, I would have loved to join him.”