Ukraine Selenskyj: Orban makes "historic mistake"
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi has described the policies of right-wing populist Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban directed against his country as a "historic mistake".
10.06.2025, 14:52
SDA
He also accused Orban of using propaganda against Ukraine for his own election campaign. "He (Orban) is using Ukraine for his own election. He doesn't understand that this will have much more serious and dangerous consequences: the radicalization and anti-Ukrainianism of Hungarian society. By not helping us, he is doing (Kremlin chief Vladimir) Putin a favor. That's why I said that Viktor is making a serious historical mistake," said Selenskyj in an interview with the Hungarian online newspaper "valaszonline.hu".
Orban's government has been campaigning for weeks against aid for Ukraine and against Ukraine's accession to the EU with a poster campaign. Help for Ukraine would drag Hungary into war and damage the economy, is the tenor of the campaign. Portraits of Zelensky can also be seen on the posters. "But for him to use my face for his own election? I didn't allow him to do that!" said Zelenskyi.
Ukrainian-Hungarian espionage affair
Selensky also recalled that the Ukrainian security service SBU had arrested two Ukrainians of Hungarian ethnicity at the beginning of May this year who were suspected of spying for the Hungarian military intelligence service KNBSZ. Selenskyj said that there was further evidence that had not yet been made public. In return, Hungary arrested a spy allegedly working for Ukraine in May, who is also close to the Hungarian opposition leader Peter Magyar.
The next parliamentary elections in the EU and NATO member state Hungary are due in spring 2026. In view of this, Orban, who has been in power since 2010, is under pressure as he has a serious rival for the first time: Magyar's new liberal-conservative Tisza party is far ahead of Orban's Fidesz party in the polls.
