Hungary’s Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó denied Hungary’s involvement in the violation of Ukrainian airspace by reconnaissance drones on Friday – accusing President Volodymyr Zelensky of “losing his mind.”
Writing on Telegram at around 2 p.m., Zelensky said that Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrsky had briefed him about drone violations on Ukraine’s Hungarian border – adding that Hungary is “likely” responsible.
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Zelensky said the drones may have been gathering intelligence about industrial sites near the countries’ shared border, and that Kyiv is monitoring the situation.
Szijjártó commented on Kyiv’s allegation a few hours later.
“President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is losing his mind to anti-Hungarian sentiment. Now he is even seeing things that aren’t there,” the Hungarian foreign minister wrote on X.
Szijjártó’s comments drew a furious response from Prime Minister Andrii Sybiha.
“We are starting to see a lot of things, Peter, including your government’s hypocrisy and moral degradation, open and covert work against Ukraine and the rest of the Europe, serving as a Kremlin lackey,” Sybiha said.
“No amount of your attacks on our President will change what we – and everyone – see.”
Relations between the two countries have long been strained – largely due to Hungarian strongman Viktor Orban’s alignment with Moscow. However, they have deteriorated significantly in recent weeks.
CARTOON: Kyiv Turns up the Heat
Also on Friday, Kyiv announced that three senior Hungarian military officials would be banned from Ukraine – mirroring similar restrictions on key Ukrainian officials visiting Hungary.
Nevertheless, Hungary remains a member of NATO. Hungarian fighter jets were scrambled to intercept five Russian fighter aircraft over the Baltic Sea on Thursday.
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