Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán accused Ukrainians of plotting to attack his family, as an increasingly bitter standoff between kyiv and Budapest continues. Orbán and his allies appear to be using the dispute for maximum political gain, ahead of elections scheduled for next month that could end his nationalist government’s 16-year rule.
Orbán posted a video on Wednesday night purporting to show him talking to his daughters on the phone. “I’m sure you’ll see on the news that the Ukrainians have not only threatened me but also you,” he said, apparently emotional. “My children and my grandchildren… We have to take this seriously, but we should not be afraid,” he added.
Orbán was apparently responding to the words of Hrihoriy Omelchenko, a retired politician who served in Ukraine’s SBU security service in the 1990s. He threatened Orbán in a televised interview earlier this week, suggesting that vigilantes could go after the Hungarian prime minister if he does not change his anti-Ukrainian position.
Previously, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had threatened to “give this person’s leadership to our armed forces” while speaking about Orbán, in comments that reportedly led European allies to ask the Ukrainian leader to tone down his rhetoric.
Orbán has long been the most pro-Russian leader of EU nations, leading to rocky relations with kyiv, but with polls putting him up to 20 points behind his rival Péter Magyar and with parliamentary elections approaching next month, the anti-Ukraine campaign in Hungary has accelerated.
The trigger for the latest round of tensions was Ukraine’s claim that it would take several weeks to repair a pipeline carrying Russian oil to Hungary, which was reportedly damaged in a Russian drone attack.
In response, Orbán vetoed new EU sanctions on Russia, as well as an additional €90 billion loan for Ukraine. Last Friday, in an escalation that shocked kyiv, Hungarian counterterrorism police confiscated a convoy of two armored vehicles belonging to Oschadbank, Ukraine’s state savings bank, and arrested the seven Ukrainians accompanying it.
The convoy was carrying tens of millions of euros in cash – as well as 9kg of gold bars – from Vienna to kyiv, in what kyiv said was a normal government cash transfer that Hungarian authorities had been notified of. Budapest suggested that money was being laundered. The seven arrested men were held incommunicado for more than 24 hours before they were eventually driven to the Ukrainian border and deported. The money and gold are still in Hungary.
“All aspects of the procedure were illegal, in particular the withholding of legal aid,” Lóránt Horváth, the men’s Hungarian lawyer, told The Guardian. One of the seven, who suffers from diabetes, was taken to hospital during interrogation, he said: “I didn’t know exactly which hospital as he was taken handcuffed and with a hood over his head.”
According to a statement from the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the man was taken to hospital after he was “forcibly injected with a drug, after which his blood sugar level increased sharply and hypertension began.” Horváth said he had no information about a forced injection, but added that he could only speak to his clients by phone, as Hungarian authorities had denied him access to the men.
Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said “psychological and physical pressure was exerted on the detainees” during their detention. A security source in kyiv said authorities were stunned after questioning the men upon their return, claiming the Hungarians had been trying to pressure those arrested into recording a video confession. “We know that Hungarian counterintelligence can be aggressive, but these seem like Russian-style methods,” the source said.
This week, officials from the two countries continued to trade accusations over the incident. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote: “The mask has fallen… They openly confess to taking hostages and stealing money with the aim of demanding a ransom. Such actions must be called by their name: state terrorism.”
Her Hungarian counterpart, Péter Szijjártó, called Sybiha’s accusations “quite pathetic” and said she should instead answer the questions that arose from the incident: “Why did they give a huge amount of cash to Hungary? What did they want to spend this money on? Is this the money of the Ukrainian war mafia?”
The Hungarian elections will take place on April 12, leaving plenty of time for further escalation. Earlier this week, the Financial Times reported that a Kremlin-aligned think tank has drawn up plans for a disinformation campaign to boost Orbán’s re-election chances. Orbán has been one of the few EU leaders to call for positive relations with Moscow, and Szijjártó has visited Russia 14 times since the full-scale invasion in 2022.
Orbán has claimed that a Magyar victory would drag Hungary into the war on Ukraine’s side and has attempted to present himself as a neutral peace candidate in the conflict.
“Is Zelenskyy forming a government or am I doing it? And if we only have these two options, I suggest myself,” Orbán told supporters at a rally Wednesday night in the town of Vecsés.
