For months, the U.S. president tried to play peacemaker, however Viktor Orban’s buddy in Moscow ignored him – escalating missile strikes on Ukrainian cities and increasing hybrid warfare throughout Europe. Putin’s resolve to escalate solely makes Trump look weak, and Trump doesn’t tolerate trying weak. Now he seems to be bringing a keep on with the negotiations. If Ukraine is certainly receiving Tomahawk missiles, issues will solely worsen for Putin. And for his buddy in Budapest.
Orban seems to be sleepwalking right into a disaster of his personal making. His love affair with Putin has remoted him in Europe. His reliance on Russian oil threatens to lead to an financial disaster if and when the oil stops flowing by Ukraine. His revanchist claims on Ukraine’s Zakarpattia Province has angered Kyiv, with out profitable Ukraine’s Hungarians to his aspect. And if he continues to impress the drone superpower in Kyiv by violating Ukrainian airspace with Hungarian drones, he might at some point discover himself on the receiving finish of a heavy stick.
How various things have been in 1989, when greater than 200,000 Hungarians gathered in Budapest’s Heroes’ Square for the reburial of Imre Nagy, the executed chief of the 1956 Revolution. The ceremony culminated in a daring seven-minute speech by a younger Viktor Orban, who known as at no cost elections and the withdrawal of Soviet troops nonetheless stationed in Hungary. It was that very same Orban who throughout Russia’s invasion of Georgia in 2008, condemned it as an “imperialistic motion of pure energy politics.” But by 2022, he was captured by Russian cash.
Whether Orban harbors imperial ambitions or just covets the totalitarian management exerted by a corrupt Kremlin, Hungary has develop into a bastion of Chinese and Russian affect within the coronary heart of Europe and has actively supported Putin’s warfare and provoked Kyiv.
In May 2025, Ukraine’s Security Service uncovered a suspected Hungarian army intelligence community, marking the primary time an EU state had been caught spying towards Kyiv.
Then in September 2025, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky acknowledged that reconnaissance drones seemingly belonging to Hungary had violated Ukraine’s airspace, the primary such reported breach. Kyiv accused the plane of scouting Ukraine’s industrial capability alongside the border.
Orban even shrugged off the violation whereas talking on a chat present, saying that Hungarian drones “both crossed or not” into Ukraine’s skies, earlier than including that “Ukraine isn’t a sovereign nation” and Hungary was not its enemy, so there was no drawback. This reckless angle is mirrored inside his personal authorities. In a leaked 2023 recording, Defense Minister Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky spoke of “breaking with the peace mentality” and getting into “part zero of the trail to warfare.” This was the form of language you’d count on from Moscow, not from the capital of a NATO ally.
That conceitedness carries dangers. In August 2025, Ukraine struck the Druzhba oil pipeline, reducing flows of Russian crude to Hungary and Slovakia – the one EU states nonetheless hooked on Moscow’s power. Kyiv had little cause to spare international locations that blocked assist in Brussels, and the strike confirmed that Hungary’s dependence on Russian pipelines is a vulnerability Ukraine can simply exploit. That Hungary signed a cope with France’s Engie to purchase liquefied pure fuel adjustments nothing, since Orban says he has no plans to cease importing fuel and oil from Russia.
What’s the purpose of Orban’s provocations? Does he actually imagine that Russia is profitable a warfare that’s price it over 1 million casualties? Does he really imagine that Hungary can reestablish the borders it had through the Habsburg Empire and assist Russia dismantle Ukraine? Does he not see that he’s compelling the EU and NATO to undertake measures that may finally isolate Hungary and negate its baneful affect?
A rational politician in a small, landlocked nation that’s benefited inordinately from its neighbors’ largesse will surely sing a distinct tune. Instead, Orban is, like Putin, driving his nation towards catastrophe.
It’s potential that the erstwhile Hungarian patriot has develop into a Hungarian imperialist who fashions himself on Moscow’s dictator. More seemingly, Orban and his legitimacy are trapped within the revisionist ideology that helped him consolidate energy. According to him and his propaganda equipment, Hungary was victimized in each world wars, whereas the fact is that it occurred to ally with the improper aspect, thereby bringing its troubles upon itself.
That narrative, and Orban’s dictatorial pretensions, seem to have outlived their function. His opponent, Peter Magyar, leads Orban by round 10 share factors and is more likely to win the parliamentary elections in April 2026. Investors are already betting {that a} change of presidency would unlock as a lot as €18 billion in frozen EU assist, roughly a tenth of Hungary’s GDP, fueling a rally within the Hungarian forint.
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Orban could be clever to vary course and return to being the person who impressed hundreds in 1989. He ought to cease pushing the Ukrainians, if solely as a result of that makes him look ridiculous. As Szabolcs Panyi, a Hungarian investigative journalist, has mentioned, “Hungary’s military is wholly unprepared for any kind of battle with anybody. Ukraine’s military is so superior that it’s fully unrealistic that Orban would interact in direct preventing.”
Orban additionally declared that Hungary was “not afraid” to shoot down Russian drones in the event that they violated his nation’s airspace. Perhaps what he really fears is reducing off the funds from Moscow that hold him loyal. In any case, Budapest could be the weak hyperlink in any European “drone wall,” ought to it quickly be constructed. Still, the Russians appear to have been launching drones from ships, which might weaken any future drone wall.
As to the EU and NATO, Orban ought to notice that it is unnecessary to chew, time and again, the hand that feeds you. Alas, Orban nonetheless has an extended strategy to go. On October 1, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz reportedly clashed with Orban at an EU summit in Copenhagen after the Hungarian chief disrupted talks on the bloc’s safety technique and assist for Ukraine.
His hostility has solely sharpened since. On October 6, Orban accused Zelensky of utilizing “ethical blackmail” to push Ukraine’s EU bid, claiming Hungary had “no ethical obligation” to help it.
Unless a miracle occurs, Orban will lose and be thrown out of workplace. Hungary might then develop into what it was in 1956 and 1989: a beacon of hope for democracy and human rights.
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