Hungary has summoned Russia’s ambassador in a rare and pointed protest over recent attacks on Ukraine, signaling a significant shift away from the pro-Kremlin stance.
According to a Bloomberg report, Hungarian Foreign Minister Anita Orbán met Russian Ambassador Evgeny Stanislavov in Budapest on Thursday, following condemnation from Prime Minister Peter Magyar over what he described as one of the most intense waves of drone strikes targeting western Ukraine – a region home to an ethnic Hungarian minority.
“The Hungarian government strongly condemns the Russian attack on Transcarpathia,” Magyar told journalists.
Before Orbán met with the Russian ambassador, Magyar said his top diplomat would demand an answer from Stanislavov on “when Russia and Vladimir Putin plan to finally end this bloody war.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later thanked Budapest on X.
“Thank you for your compassion and strong position!” he wrote.
The Hungarian foreign minister said she told Moscow that Budapest expects an “immediate halt to attacks against civilians.”
“I repeated that the Hungarian government deeply condemns the Russian attack and we expect an immediate halt to attacks against civilians,” Orbán said after the meeting.
She added that strikes on Ukraine’s Zakarpattia region were “completely unacceptable” for Hungary.
The move marks a clear departure from Hungary’s previous foreign policy under former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán (no relation to the new foreign minister), whose government maintained close ties with Moscow throughout Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Former Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó was a key architect of that approach, frequently visiting Russia and advocating within the EU to soften sanctions and block military aid to Kyiv based on leaked calls.
Magyar has pledged to reorient Hungary toward the EU and reduce reliance on Russia. His government held its first cabinet meeting on Wednesday, setting the tone for a broader geopolitical pivot.
At the same time, Budapest faces a delicate balancing act. Hungary remains heavily dependent on Russian energy supplies, and Magyar has indicated he intends to maintain imports of Russian gas and oil despite a looming EU ban.
At least 24 people, including three children, were killed in a Russian overnight strike on Kyiv on Thursday, as emergency crews continued to clear rubble and search for survivors beneath a destroyed residential building in the capital’s Darnytskyi district.
Zelensky said Russia had carried out a “virtually non-stop aerial attack” between Wednesday and Thursday, deploying more than 1,500 drones and 56 missiles of various types.