Ukraine Allegedly Interfering in Upcoming Election in Hungary: Minister

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban addresses a business conference in Budapest, Hungary, on June 9, 2021. (Bernadett Szabo/Reuters)

Hungary’s foreign minister accused Ukraine’s leadership of trying to interfere in the country’s upcoming election, which was denied by the Kyiv government.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto alleged Wednesday in a video that there is “ongoing coordination between the Hungarian left and representatives of the Ukrainian government,” while asserting that Ukraine was trying to interfere in the election on April 3 in favor of several opposition parties.

“The Hungarian left has been completely exposed. They are busted, as the Hungarian left and representatives of the Ukrainian government are in constant contact,” Szijjarto also said,

Szijjarto further asserted that Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, contacted the Ukrainian ambassador in Budapest to discuss how to influence Hungary’s election.

Meanwhile, left-wing parties, he said, “made a promise that if they were in government, they would immediately decide on the transfer of armaments to Ukraine and immediately vote in favor of sanctions on oil and gas shipments to Europe and Hungary.”

But Kuleba denied the charges to the Evropeiska Pravda newspaper.

“In contrast to the behavior of Hungary in Ukraine, we have never interfered in Hungary’s internal affairs and especially not ahead of an election,” Kuleba claimed. “It is a pity to see how, for the sake of a short-term pre-election advantage, minister Szijjarto is prepared to think up nonsense and destroy our relationship with him which we had spent so long building.”

The statements came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy made several recent comments that were harshly critical of the Hungarian government’s approach to the war.

Hungary’s government has opposed placing sanctions against Russian energy imports and also has declined to supply Ukraine, with which it shares a border, with weapons.

However, the Hungarian government has gone along with NATO moves to send troops to western Hungary and didn’t oppose the European Union’s decision to provide hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine. The Budapest government also supported E.U. sanctions against Russia’s economy.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is often criticized by U.S. corporate media outlets for allegedly fostering a close relationship with the Kremlin, and his Fidesz party have campaigned as the guarantor of Hungary’s peace and security as the war rages in neighboring Ukraine, while saying opposition parties are trying to drag Hungary into the conflict on Ukraine’s behalf.

“The war has cast a shadow over the whole Hungarian campaign,” Orban said in a recent radio interview. “The question of peace and security is now also part of what’s at stake in the election. And our message is clear: Only Fidesz can create peace in Hungary, only we can guarantee the security of the Hungarian people,” he continued.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.