Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has dismissed suggestions from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that Hungary owes Ukraine for protecting Europe, in the latest instance of bad blood between the two countries.
Despite being part of the European Union and NATO, Hungary has maintained cordial relations with Moscow and regularly opposed support for Ukraine and restrictions on Russia.
In an interview with Euronews on Tuesday, Zelensky said he had no intention of offering concessions to Budapest in exchange for greater support, arguing that Hungary should be grateful for Ukraine’s defence of Europe.
“I don’t think that I have to offer something to Viktor Orbán,” Zelensky said.
“I think that Viktor Orbán has to offer something for Ukraine, which is protecting the whole Europe from Russia, and even now, during this war, we did not get any support from him, support for our vision of life,” the Ukrainian leader added.
Orbán promptly rejected the comments in a post on X.
“Ukraine does not defend Hungary from anyone or anything. We did not ask for such a thing, and we never will. Hungary’s security is guaranteed by our national defence capabilities and by NATO, of which Ukraine is fortunately not a member,” Orbán said.
The Hungarian leader added that his country supports Ukraine in various ways, including the intake of Ukrainian refugees, humanitarian aid and energy supplies.
‘Unanimity is not the only form of democracy’
In his post on X, the Hungarian Prime Minister also reiterated Hungary’s opposition to Ukraine’s EU membership bid.
“Hungary does not and will not support Ukraine’s membership in the European Union, because it would bring the war into Europe and take the money of Hungarians out to Ukraine,” Orbán said, adding that he would prefer to see Ukraine as a strategic partner of the EU rather than a full member.
“I would like to remind the President that the decision on a country’s accession to the European Union is made by the member states, unanimously,” Orbán added.
In an exclusive interview with TVP World on Wednesday, Polish Deputy Prime Minister Radosław Sikorski said that democratic backsliding under Orbán’s leadership, as well as Poland’s previous conservative government, had made the process of accepting more members into the EU accession more difficult.
“When they were in government, they scared the rest of Europe with members that are capable of backtracking [on democratic norms],” Sikorski said.
“They have made the accession of Moldova and Ukraine harder, which is not a good thing,” he added.
Sikorski also commented on Hungary’s continued opposition to Ukraine’s accession to the EU, saying: “The bigger any organization is, the harder it is to run it by consensus, by unanimity. But unanimity is not the only form of democracy.”