Sergiy Sydorenko, editor-in-chief of the Ukrainian outlet European Pravda, has launched an unusually harsh public attack against Hungarian conservative media and the government of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán after being contacted for an interview by Mandiner.
According to the Hungarian outlet, its editorial team reached out to Sydorenko in light of his growing commentary on Hungary, including his writings on a consultative vote on Ukraine’s EU membership launched by the Hungarian government, and his sympathetic coverage of opposition leader Péter Magyar. Instead of responding to the interview request in a conventional manner, Sydorenko published a lengthy Facebook post filled with personal insults and sweeping political accusations directed at both Mandiner and the Hungarian government.
In the post, Sydorenko labelled Mandiner ‘not a media outlet but a piece of vile propaganda’ and claimed it seeks ‘to misinform the Hungarian people and harm the Hungarian nation by isolating them from European civilisation’. He further asserted that the current Hungarian leadership is ‘deliberately harming the Hungarian people’ and argued that the supposed aim of Orbán’s political system is ‘to keep Hungary uneducated, poor, and isolated for as long as possible’.
‘He urged Ukrainian journalists, politicians, and officials to refuse any contact with Hungarian conservative media’
Sydorenko also accused the Hungarian government of relying on the creation of enemies as a governing strategy, writing that the basis of Orbán’s politics is the principle that ‘enemies are all around, and only I, Orbán, can save you’. He suggested that Ukraine has now become a central target of this narrative and claimed that ‘raising fear and hatred towards Ukraine has become Orbán’s main pre-election strategy’.
In the same post, he urged Ukrainian journalists, politicians, and officials to refuse any contact with Hungarian conservative media, stating that their ‘only goal is to lie and use you for their lies’ and that ‘ignoring them is the best strategy’.
Mandiner, reporting on the incident, described Sydorenko’s response as an ‘indecent torrent of attacks’ rather than a professional reply to a journalistic inquiry. The outlet emphasized that it published the Ukrainian editor’s full statement unchanged as evidence of what it characterized as ‘Ukraine’s current understanding of press freedom and public debate’.
European Pravda itself is a Kyiv-based online publication founded in 2014 by a group of journalists led by Sydorenko and Yurii Panchenko, focusing primarily on European Union affairs and Ukraine’s European integration. The project has received financial support from Western governmental and quasi-governmental donors—including the European Union; the National Endowment for Democracy, funded by the US Congress and seen as a ‘regime change machine’ of the American establishment; the European Endowment for Democracy; the Council of Europe; and NATO’s Public Diplomacy Division. These sources cover roughly 80–85 per cent of the outlet’s expenses.
Sydorenko concluded his post by predicting the eventual fall of the Hungarian government and portraying the prime minister as ‘a petty dictator’ whose rule would remain ‘a dark page’ in Hungary’s history.
Sydorenko’s response comes amid increasingly deteriorating relations between the neighbouring countries. Hungary is seen as one of the biggest obstacles to Ukraine’s EU membership, as Orbán has vowed to block every decision related to the issue, citing negative security and economic consequences. Hungary has advocated peace talks between Ukraine and Russia since the outset of the war, positioning itself as a lone European pro-peace voice.
Kyiv has targeted energy infrastructure linked to Russia that delivers a significant proportion of Hungary’s oil and natural gas imports, while also accusing Budapest of financing Russia’s war effort by continuing to purchase Russian energy. Meanwhile, an increasing number of ethnic Hungarians living in Transcarpathia, Ukraine, have reportedly been killed during forced mobilization by Ukrainian conscription officers, further straining already fragile ties.
Orbán has accused Kyiv of ‘openly interfering’ in Hungary’s upcoming parliamentary election in April and of supporting the main opposition party, Tisza, which is expected to lift the veto on Ukraine’s EU accession and provide further EU financial and military support to the war-torn country if it comes to power.
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