Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban dismissed allegations that Hungarian drones violated Ukrainian airspace last week as irrelevant even if they had, as \u201cUkraine is not an independent, sovereign country\u201d, he said in an interview on the Harcosok \u00f3r\u00e1ja (Warriors\u2019 Hour) podcast on September 29.<\/p>\n
The statement echoes the Kremlin\u2019s line that the current government in Kyiv was installed in a coup d’\u00e9tat in 2024 and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy is not the legitimate president as his five-year term in office expired in May this year. Under the Ukrainian constitution, elections cannot be held while martial law is in effect.<\/p>\n
Orban\u2019s comments are bound to raise hackles as the come at the end of a week where Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has been trading very public barbs with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha on social media over the issue, after Zelenskiy reported that a Hungarian reconnaissance drone had entered Ukrainian airspace on September 26. Zelenskiy claimed that the drone was spying on Ukrainian infrastructure near their mutual border.<\/p>\n
Sybiha said that Ukraine’s Armed Forces had documented the drone\u2019s path and presented visual evidence of the incursion on September 27. \u201cFor the blind Hungarian officials,\u201d Sybiha said, posting a flight path image as proof.<\/p>\n
Szijjarto has rejected the claim as fabricated. \u201cZelenskiy is becoming obsessed with anti-Hungarian sentiment,\u201d he said. \u201cHe is seeing ghosts.\u201d Szijjarto added that Ukraine was attempting to discredit itself through baseless accusations.<\/p>\n