Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Viktor Orbán were once again caught in a fierce war of words over the weekend, as the Ukrainian president targeted the Hungarian leader in a speech delivered at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, 14 February.
Speaking in front of high-level security experts and senior officials from Western governments, including US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Zelenskyy said Orbán can ‘think about how to grow his belly,’ not how to grow ‘his army to stop Russian tanks from returning to the streets of Budapest,’ thanks to the Ukrainian people, who are ‘holding the European front’ and defending Europe from Russia.
The Ukrainian president was also critical of Kyiv’s Western allies, stating that Ukraine is asked ‘too often’ to make concessions while Russia is not equally pressured, referring to negotiations launched by the Trump administration a year ago to end the war and mediate a deal between Kyiv and Moscow. Zelenskyy also voiced frustration over the amount of military and financial support Ukraine has received from European Union member states and demanded Western security guarantees for Ukraine as a core principle of any potential peace agreement.
In another speech during the presentation of the Ewald von Kleist Award at the conference, Zelenskyy mentioned Orbán again, ironically thanking him for being the motivation that ‘pushes all of us in Europe to be better’. ‘Better, so that we are never like him, someone who seems to have forgotten the word “shame”,’ Zelenskyy said.
Ties between Hungary and Ukraine have become increasingly strained in recent months, as Orbán is the only European leader blocking Kyiv’s accession to the EU, 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. Orbán recently declared that Ukraine is an ‘enemy’ of Hungary because of its push to ban Russian energy imports and that it should ‘never’ join the EU.
Ukraine has become a central issue in Hungary’s campaign ahead of the April parliamentary election, with both Kyiv and Brussels supporting Orbán’s opposition, Péter Magyar and the Tisza party, who are expected to lift the veto on Ukraine’s accession. Orbán and his government have accused Kyiv and the European Commission of interfering in the Hungarian election and threatening the country’s sovereignty.
Reacting to Zelenskyy’s personal attacks, Orbán said in a post on his X account that the debate is not about him or the Ukrainian president, but about the ‘future of Hungary, Ukraine and Europe’. ‘This is precisely why you cannot become a member of the European Union,’ he declared.
In a separate post on Monday, 16 February, Orbán highlighted that ‘political attacks from Ukraine’ have escalated over the past week. ‘President Zelenskyy has directly intervened in the Hungarian election campaign, opposing the Hungarian government,’ Orbán wrote, adding that by doing so, Zelenskyy is ‘questioning the sovereign decision of the Hungarian people’.
He pointed to the fact that ‘Hungarians made it clear’ they do not want Ukraine to join the EU in a public vote launched by the government in 2025. ‘As Prime Minister of Hungary, it is my duty to enforce the decision of the Hungarian people. And I will do so, again and again,’ Orbán concluded.
Recently, POLITICO Brussels published a five-point roadmap for Ukraine’s fast-track accession to the EU by 2027, based on conversations with EU officials. The proposals include reshaping enlargement rules through a phased ‘membership-lite’ model and overcoming Hungary’s resistance by political or institutional means, including supporting the opposition in the upcoming parliamentary election.
The plan identifies Orbán’s position as a central obstacle to Kyiv’s EU membership, raising the prospect of a change in Hungary’s government, US President Donald Trump placing pressure on Orbán to alter his stance, or even the suspension of Hungary’s voting rights under the long-running Article 7 procedure if Budapest continues to block Kyiv’s path. There is also another push by the EPP, as reported by Hungarian Conservative, to reform EU decision-making and eliminate national vetoes in foreign policy and security matters, contradicting the EU treaties.
Orbán described the plan as an ‘open declaration of war against Hungary’.
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