BUDAPEST (Reuters) -Hungary’s Viktor Orban said on Monday that Ukraine was not a sovereign country, as he hit back at accusations that Hungarian reconnaissance drones violated its airspace – the latest salvo in an increasingly bitter row between Kyiv and Budapest.
“Ukraine is not at war with Hungary; it is at war with Russia. It should be concerned with the drones on its eastern border,” the Hungarian prime minister said during an interview on a right-wing podcast popular with his supporters.
“I believe my ministers, but let’s say it would have actually flown a few metres there, so what? Ukraine is not an independent country. Ukraine is not a sovereign country, Ukraine is financed by us, the West gives it funds, weapons,” Orban said.
In contrast to most NATO and European Union leaders, Orban has maintained cordial relations with Russia while questioning the logic of Western military aid for Kyiv, a stance which has frequently put him at loggerheads with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
On Friday, Zelenskiy said that reconnaissance drones that violated Ukraine’s airspace could have flown from Hungary to check the industrial potential of western border areas.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto rejected the accusation, saying that Zelenskiy was “losing his mind”.
In a further sign of deepening tensions between the countries, Hungary said on Monday it was blocking access to 12 Ukrainian news sites after a similar move by Kyiv.
Earlier this month, Ukraine blocked various websites deemed to contain pro-Russian views at the request of the security services. They included eight Hungarian-language portals, among them a popular pro-government news site origo.hu.
There was no immediate comment on Monday from Ukraine.
(Reporting by Krisztina Than in Budapest and Alan Charlish in Warsaw; Editing by Aidan Lewis)
