Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban acknowledged the intrusion of Hungarian drones and said that “2-3 Hungarian drones are not something that Ukraine should be concerned about.”

He said this in the Harcosok órája podcast.

In an interview, he openly stated that Hungary has no intention of attacking Ukraine, and that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy “needs to worry more about the situation in the east.”

“The question is not whether two, three or four Hungarian drones flew over or not. Let’s say they flew a few meters there, and then what?” the Hungarian prime minister said, as quoted by the Politico.

Orban also rhetorically asked what Russia could be spying on with Hungarian drones in Zakarpattia, if the front line is in eastern Ukraine.

“It lost a fifth of its territory in the war with the Russians, and its sovereignty ended there. Do we hold the rest of the territory? We need to take it more seriously, 2-3 Hungarian drones are not something that Ukraine should be concerned about: these are not its enemies,” Orban said. 

According to the military, on the morning of September 26, radar detected an aircraft flying over the territory of Zakarpattia region at various altitudes. It was identified as a drone. The device twice violated the state border of Ukraine from Hungary.

Kyiv reminds Orban of Hungary’s energy dependence on Russia

These words of the head of the Hungarian government drew sharp criticism from Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga. “The good news is that Prime Minister Orban has admitted that some drones did indeed enter Ukraine’s airspace from Hungary,” the Ukrainian official said. Against this backdrop, Sibiga recalled earlier comments by Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, who had strongly denied Hungary’s involvement in the drone incident. “Mr. Szijjarto, what about your tweet about ‘fake news’? Has it lost its relevance?” added Sibiga. “But the bad news is that the prime minister remains under the poisonous influence of Russian propaganda,” Sibiga wrote.

 

 

Sibiga also emphasized that Kyiv is ready to listen to Orban’s comments on state sovereignty and independence after he “gets rid of dependence on Russian energy, as US President Donald Trump and European partners have repeatedly insisted.”

Budapest has banned several Ukrainian publications, and Kyiv has also commented on this

Meanwhile, the Chief of Staff of the Office of the Prime Minister of Hungary, Gergely Gulyás, said that his country had decided to block access to 12 Ukrainian news outlets, including Ukrayinska Pravda and Evropeiska Pravda, Hromadske, TSN.ua, NV.ua, lb.ua and others.

Gulyás said in a Facebook post that the move was Budapest’s response to Ukraine’s ban on a number of Hungarian publications. According to Yevropeiska Pravda, these are the Hungarian news outlets Origo and Demokrata, which were banned on the grounds that these sites regularly spread Russian propaganda.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry also reacted to this move. “The difference is that Ukraine blocks Russian propaganda, while the Orban government blocks Hungarians’ access to fact-based journalism. But for them, the farther from the truth, the better,” Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhiy Tykhyi wrote on social media platform X.