Hungary’s Orbán claims Ukrainians ‘threatened’ his family as election campaign ramps up | Ukraine
Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán has accused Ukrainians of planning an attack on his family as tensions between Kiev and Budapest continue to escalate. Orbán and his allies appear to be using the dispute for maximum political gain ahead of elections next month that could end his nationalist government’s 16-year rule.
Orbán released a video Wednesday night showing him talking to his daughters on the phone. “I’m sure you’ll see on the news that the Ukrainians are threatening not only me but also you,” he said, seemingly emotionally. “My children and my grandchildren… We must take this seriously, but not be afraid,” he added.
Orbán was apparently responding to remarks by Hrihoriy Omelchenko, a retired politician who served in Ukraine’s SBU security service in the 1990s. Earlier this week, he issued threats to Orbán in a televised interview, suggesting that vigilantes could capture the Hungarian prime minister if he did not change his anti-Ukrainian stance.
Previously, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, speaking about Orbán, threatened to “give this person’s address to our armed forces”; This had led European allies to ask the Ukrainian leader to soften his rhetoric.
Orbán has long been seen as the most pro-Russian leader among EU countries, leading to mixed relations with Kiev, but with him trailing rival Péter Magyar by some 20 points in the polls and parliamentary elections looming next month, the anti-Ukrainian campaign in Hungary has kicked into overdrive.
The trigger for the latest round of tensions was Ukraine’s claim that it would take several weeks to repair the oil pipeline carrying Russian oil to Hungary, which was reportedly damaged in a Russian drone attack.
In response, Orbán vetoed additional EU sanctions against Russia and an additional €90 billion loan to Ukraine. Last Friday, in an escalation that shocked Kiev, Hungary’s counterterrorism police seized a convoy of two armored vehicles belonging to Ukraine’s state savings bank Oschadbank and arrested the seven Ukrainians accompanying it.
The convoy was carrying tens of millions of euros worth of cash from Vienna to Kiev, as well as 9 kg of gold bullion, in what Hungarian officials informed Kiev said was a normal government cash transfer. Budapest claimed the money was laundered. The seven arrested men were held incommunicado for more than 24 hours and were eventually taken to the Ukrainian border and deported. The money and gold are still in Hungary.
The men’s Hungarian lawyer, Lóránt Horváth, told the Guardian: “Every aspect of the procedure was illegal, especially the withholding of legal aid.” He said that one of the 7 people with diabetes was hospitalized during the interrogation, and said: “He did not know exactly which hospital he was taken to because he was transported in handcuffs and with a hood over his head.”
According to a statement from the Ukrainian foreign ministry, the man was hospitalized after “a sharp increase in blood sugar and the onset of hypertension following the forcible injection of drugs.” Horváth said he had no knowledge of the forced injection, but added that he could only speak to his clients by phone because Hungarian authorities did not allow him access to the men.
Ukraine’s foreign ministry said “psychological and physical pressure was applied to the detainees” during their detention. A security source in Kiev claimed that the Hungarians had tried to pressure the arrested men to produce a confession video, saying authorities there were stunned after receiving information about the men on their return. “We know that Hungarian counterintelligence can be aggressive, but these resemble Russian-style methods,” the source said.
This week, officials in the two countries continued to trade accusations over the incident. Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha wrote: “The mask has fallen… They openly admit to taking hostages and stealing money in order to demand ransom. Such actions should be called by their own name: state terrorism.”
His Hungarian counterpart, Péter Szijjártó, called Sybiha’s accusations “quite pathetic” and said she should instead answer questions arising from the incident: “Why did they give Hungary a large amount of money? What did they want to spend this money on? Is this the money of the Ukrainian war mafia?”
Hungarian elections will be held on April 12, leaving plenty of time for tensions to escalate further. Earlier this week the Financial Times reported He said a Kremlin-affiliated think tank had drawn up a plan for a disinformation campaign to boost Orbán’s chances of re-election. Orbán has been one of the few EU leaders to call for continued positive relations with Moscow, and Szijjártó has visited Russia 14 times since the full-scale invasion in 2022.
Orbán claimed that a Magyar win would drag Hungary into war on Ukraine’s side and sought to portray himself as a peace candidate who was neutral in the conflict.
Orbán told his supporters at a rally in the town of Vecsés on Wednesday evening: “Is Zelenskyy forming a government, or is it me? And if we only have these two options, this is what I propose to myself.”
