Tensions between Hungary and Ukraine flared again on Friday after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested reconnaissance drones that violated Ukrainian airspace may have come from Hungary, drawing a sharp rebuke from Budapest.
“President Zelenskyy is losing his mind to his anti-Hungarian obsession. He’s now starting to see things that aren’t there,” Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó wrote on X, dismissing the allegation as baseless.
Zelenskyy, citing a preliminary military assessment, told Ukrainians that drones had been spotted near the western border and could be linked to monitoring Ukraine’s industrial capacity. He instructed his military command to verify all incidents and called for “thorough checks” and appropriate defensive responses if such incursions reoccur.
Ukraine’s General Staff later shared images of what it described as drone-like objects breaching the country’s border, noting that Ukrainian forces had deployed their own drones to patrol the airspace.
The dispute underscores long-running strains between Kyiv and Budapest, despite Hungary’s membership in both NATO and the European Union, organizations that have strongly backed Ukraine in its war with Russia. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has maintained closer ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin than most of his Western counterparts and has voiced scepticism over military aid to Kyiv.
Relations deteriorated further earlier on Friday when Ukraine barred three senior Hungarian military officials from entry, a retaliatory move after Hungary imposed similar restrictions on Ukrainian officers.
The friction is compounded by disputes over the rights of Ukraine’s 150,000-strong ethnic Hungarian minority, mostly living in Transcarpathia, near the shared border. Language laws and education rights have been flashpoints in the bilateral relationship for years.
Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, many Ukrainian industries have relocated to western regions, heightening Kyiv’s sensitivity to security incidents in areas bordering Hungary.
Zelenskyy said in his nightly address that “very strange incidents” had occurred near the Hungarian frontier, while stressing that Ukraine would respond decisively to protect its sovereignty.
Source: Reuters
Written By Rodney Mbua
