Hungary and the Russian invasion of Ukraine

[9] On February 27, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó announced at a joint press conference with the governor of Transcarpathia, Viktor Mikita, that Hungary would help Ukraine with nearly 30,000 tons of food and fuel in order to alleviate the humanitarian disaster.

[14] The Hungarian government attempted to deny these actions in the domestic media, with the Ministry of Finance stating that: "Contrary to the erroneous news published in the press today, the 18 billion euro support of Ukraine was not on the agenda at the Ecofin meeting held on 12.06.2022.

[28] According to State Secretary István György, the government decided only three weeks after the outbreak of the war to establish the transit waiting room at the sports hall because the expected increase in the number of refugees required a higher capacity facility.

According to György, the government did performed their promised tasks at the railway stations prior to the relocation and referred to organizations that help their work as partners, despite civilians stating that they did almost everything for most of the period.

[30][31] Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén later stated that the transfer was a positive gesture of the Russian Orthodox Church towards Hungary, and that the soldiers owed their freedom to it, and that it was "his human and patriotic duty.

[42] Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó commented on the case: "I would like to make it clear again that there was contact between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Hungarian Maltese Charity Service, as a result of which eleven former prisoners of war arrived in Hungary.

[51] In the meantime, pro-government publicists published several comments criticizing Ukraine and its Western allies in solidarity, such as Zsolt Bayer and András Kovács, journalists for the Hungarian news portal Origo.

"[78] Finally, Gergely Gulyás announced in March that the Ukrainian language law negatively affecting Transcarpathian Hungarians represented an obstacle for Orbán's willingness to travel to Kyiv, and that it could only take place after it is amended.

[88][89] At the same time, the eight-point government proposal adopted on the one-year anniversary of the war stated that "the Parliament condemns Russia's military aggression and recognizes that Ukraine has the right to self-defense."

[90] Among the ministers of justice of the member states of the European Union, only the Hungarian Judit Varga did not sign the document in which they supported the arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court on March 17, 2023, against Vladimir Putin and his children's rights commissioner.

According to Orbán, Putin showed strength by neutralizing the rebellion within 24 hours, and he also warned against people trying to understand the operation of Russia from a German or Hungarian point of view, which, according to him, is a "different world".

"[111] On July 20, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó stated that the Hungarian government will block all financial support to Ukraine as long as OTP Bank is on the Ukrainian sanctions list.

There was also a bilateral public hearing between them, where Putin praised Orbán: "he belongs to the small group of European politicians who know how to protect their interests, and he does this persistently, consistently, and in my opinion completely tactfully."

[118] In November 2023, in the framework of a national consultation survey, several issues concerning Ukraine appeared, which dealt with the delivery of weapons intended for the country, its financial support, its genetically modified grain, and its membership in the EU.

Orbán rigidly rejected the idea, citing the country's state of corruption and insufficient accession conditions, and suggested that the issue be removed from the agenda of the December 2023 EU summit.

Péter Szijjártó brought up the previous sanctions against the OTP and called on Ukraine to stop the "witch hunt against active Hungarian companies", otherwise they would not be able to support the payment of aid.

[145] The international press also drew attention to the event, emphasizing the "stormy" relationship between Ukraine and Hungary in the past two years juxtaposed to the exceptional closeness of Hungarian and Russian relations.

According to his statements, Putin— who thanked Orbán for his visit and his steps to create peace— was willing to resolve the conflict through negotiations, but at the same time he blamed the countries that he claimed used Ukraine as a "battering ram" against Russia.

[9] The country's leadership was also criticized by the opposition regarding the International Investment Bank (IIB) founded by Putin and having its headquarters in Budapest a few years earlier, holding diplomatic powers.

[168] At a panel discussion in February 2023, French Green Party politician Gwendoline Delbos-Corfield stated that Hungary posed a threat to the European Union because, in her opinion, the Hungarian secret services leaked intelligence to the Russians.

Tykhanovskaya said after the Hungarian visit that "Such a step is unacceptable at a time when Nobel laureates are being brought to court in Belarus, journalists are being tortured, and Russian soldiers are being trained there before being sent to the Ukrainian front.

[177] At the same time as Szijjártó's trip to Minsk, an article was published in The Guardian which analyzed the Hungarian government's attitude to the war at length, in which they also discussed the pro-Russian expressions of Orbán, who was described as a "far-right prime minister".

"[180] József Kis-Benedek, a security policy and military expert, criticized the majority of the Hungarian media for talking too much about the possible world war mentioned by Orbán from March 2023, on the one hand because this is an interpretation more in line with Russian propaganda.

[181] Criticism was also received from the Kremlin after Orbán mentioned the possibility of EU peacekeepers in his radio interview on March 31, which, according to the Russian government spokesman, is a "potentially very dangerous topic" because it usually happens with bilateral consent.

[95] In an article published by the newspaper Politico on April 14, they wrote that contrary to the Hungarian government's claim that it prohibits the transfer of war materials to Ukraine through the country's territory, it can actually secretly allow its allies to use its airspace to transport weapons.

[184] A significant diplomatic scandal was also caused by the incident when, according to a statement on June 8, 2023, Russia handed over eleven prisoners of war from Transcarpathia to Hungary without Ukraine ever being informed about the transfer.

She said of him: "this man has nothing to do with his church it is not to be believed, it is a secret service tool whose purpose is to participate in the destruction of the Ukrainian nation and statehood.” In addition, she criticized the fact that several measures aimed at helping Ukraine were being obstructed on the Hungarian side.

American Ambassador David Pressman wrote in a Twitter post: "Hungary’s leader chooses to stand with a man whose forces are responsible for crimes against humanity in Ukraine, and alone among our Allies.

While Russia strikes Ukrainian civilians, Hungary pleads for business deals.”[192] In addition to Pressman, the Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas and the German Ambassador to Budapest Julia Gross also criticized the meeting.

Responding to the government's narrative of peace, he said: "Does Hungary really think that if our partners and allies no longer provide military support to Ukraine, while it is fighting for its survival on its own territory, then Russia will sit at the negotiating table?"