Vance hits out at ‘scandalous’ Zelenskiy comments about Hungary’s Orban
Humeyra Pamuk and Alan Charlish
BUDAPEST, April 8 (Reuters) – U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance said on Wednesday that Ukraine’s president made “scandalous” comments about Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and repeated accusations that Budapest was trying to influence elections there by using Kiev’s energy resources.
Vance’s remarks came during Donald Trump’s visit to Budapest, aimed at boosting the chances of nationalist Orban, who faces the toughest test of his 16-year rule in the April 12 elections seen as crucial for the influence of supporters of the MAGA movement in Europe.
As Hungary’s tense relations with Ukraine came to the fore in the election campaign, Budapest accused Kiev of deliberately stopping the flow of Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline in order to influence the ballot measure.
Kiev says the pipeline was damaged in a Russian drone attack in late January and is trying to repair it as quickly as possible.
Hungary responded by blocking a 90 billion euro ($105 billion) EU loan to Ukraine, prompting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to say that the person in charge of the Ukrainian military could give his address and “talk to him in his own language.”
ALLEGATION OF ELECTION MESSUP
Speaking at a Hungarian university, Vance said Orban told him about Zelenskiy’s remarks.
“This is completely scandalous,” Vance said. “You should never have a foreign head of government… threatening the head of government of an allied country.”
Vance later accused the media of applying double standards in their coverage of the 2016 US presidential election and allegations of foreign interference in elections in Hungary.
“You saw this in 2016, when a lot of American media said that the Russian government’s $500,000 purchase of Facebook ads was a real scandal… This is foreign influence,” he said.
“But the European Union threatening to withhold billions of dollars from Hungary because you protect your borders does not count as foreign influence… Ukrainians causing suffering to the Hungarian people by shutting down pipelines in order to influence elections does not count as foreign influence.”
Budapest is in the middle of a long-running dispute with the European Union over issues ranging from judicial independence to the treatment of immigrants.
Vance had already criticized what he said was the EU’s interference in Hungary’s elections at a press conference on Tuesday. Following these comments, Brussels would use diplomatic channels “to convey our concerns to our US counterparts”, a European Commission spokesman said on Wednesday.
The Ukrainian presidency did not immediately respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
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(Reporting by Humerya Pamuk in Budapest, additional reporting by Yuliia Dysa and Dan Flynn in Kiev, Lili Bayer in Budapest; Writing by Alan Charlish; Editing by Ros Russell and Toby Chopra)
