Emboldened by Trump, Hungary ups anti-Kyiv disinfo: researcher
By AFP
March 7, 2025
Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban (R) regularly breaks EU unity on Ukraine - Copyright AFP Ludovic MARIN
Ede ZABORSZKY and Andras ROSTOVANYI
A country that “never existed” or a “problem called Ukraine”: Hungary’s government and affiliated media have attacked their war-torn neighbour with increased pace since Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s “dear friend” Donald Trump took power.
Orban and his allies have long used the same “hostile narratives” against the West and Ukraine as Russia, Dorka Takacsy, a research fellow at the Budapest-based Centre for Euro-Atlantic Integration and Democracy (CEID) think tank told AFP.
But the government — a close EU ally of Washington under Trump and the Kremlin — is more emboldened since the election of the US Republican.
“It seems Hungarian leadership saw Trump’s victory as an opportunity to do whatever they want with Ukraine,” Takacsy said, noting the number of anti-Kyiv messages from Orban and his allies has increased lately.
Trump last month called Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president since 2019, a “dictator” for not holding elections, even though martial law precludes any vote because of the war.
Amid a rush of online disinformation targeting Ukraine, here are some key Hungarian statements:
– West provoked Russia into war –
Orban regularly breaks EU unity on Ukraine, to which he has refused to send arms since Russia invaded in 2022, while slamming EU sanctions on Moscow.
In his weekly radio address on Friday, he warned again EU membership of Ukraine would “ruin” the bloc.
The nationalist leader also did not join EU leaders, shaken by the prospect of US disengagement, in signing a text on Thursday in support of Ukraine.
In late February, Orban blamed the West for provoking Moscow into the conflict.
“The war is not really about Ukraine, it is about the fact that the territory called Ukraine — which has been a buffer zone, a buffer state, between NATO and Russia — should be brought under the auspices of NATO,” Orban said in his annual state of the nation address.
“Why European and American liberals thought that the Russians would stand idly by and watch this, is still a mystery,” he added.
Trump has blamed Ukraine over the war, saying “you should have never started it”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, with Russia occupying almost 20 percent of the country’s territory.
– ‘Never existed’ –
Echoing a narrative often employed by Putin, Hungary’s parliamentary speaker Laszlo Kover this week said Ukraine was a “country that actually has never existed in history”.
“It has no real political history, no real political elite, no tradition of governance,” the ultraconservative politician and Orban ally said in a Tuesday radio interview, adding that only those remain “who are incapable of defending themselves and those who have unscrupulously exploited the weaker”.
Ukraine, a nation of more than 40 million people, has had a series of elected leaders since gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Top Orban aide Balazs Orban — who has the same last name as the premier but is not related to him — in a Facebook post on Monday referred to the neighbouring country as a “problem called Ukraine” that now “must be dealt with by the pro-war Europeans”.
Hungary’s pro-government newspaper Magyar Nemzet published opinion pieces, calling Ukraine a “rotten mafia monster state” and referred to the killings in Bucha — where Russian forces are accused of slaying hundreds of civilians — as “false flag theatrics”.
A 2022 UN Human Rights report said Russian forces killed civilians in Bucha and other cities.
AFP reporters were among international journalists to document bodies in the streets of Bucha, including some with their hands tied.
– ‘Bought’ celebrities –
Hungary’s nationalist premier has also referenced in interviews conspiracy narratives about a “global left-wing network” having supposedly “bought” journalists and even US celebrities to boost Zelensky’s popularity.
“Hollywood stars were paid to go to Kyiv. They paid them millions of dollars,” Orban said in a recent interview with state radio.
The Hungarian government did not respond to AFP’s inquiry about the source of the allegation.
The claim may originate from a debunked video, purported to be from the US entertainment show E! News, which was shared by Elon Musk and prominent American conservatives.
It alleged without proof that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) “sponsored American celebrity visits to Ukraine… to increase Zelensky’s popularity among foreign audiences, particularly in the United States.”
Russian state media often quotes Orban’s remarks on Ukraine at length, according to Takacsy.
Orban “paints the same picture of the world that the Kremlin’s domestic propaganda would like to suggest… If they can quote the same criticisms of the West, the same accusations, from the mouth of an outsider, it gives extra credibility to the same criticisms,” the researcher said.
By AFP
March 7, 2025
Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban (R) regularly breaks EU unity on Ukraine - Copyright AFP Ludovic MARIN
Ede ZABORSZKY and Andras ROSTOVANYI
A country that “never existed” or a “problem called Ukraine”: Hungary’s government and affiliated media have attacked their war-torn neighbour with increased pace since Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s “dear friend” Donald Trump took power.
Orban and his allies have long used the same “hostile narratives” against the West and Ukraine as Russia, Dorka Takacsy, a research fellow at the Budapest-based Centre for Euro-Atlantic Integration and Democracy (CEID) think tank told AFP.
But the government — a close EU ally of Washington under Trump and the Kremlin — is more emboldened since the election of the US Republican.
“It seems Hungarian leadership saw Trump’s victory as an opportunity to do whatever they want with Ukraine,” Takacsy said, noting the number of anti-Kyiv messages from Orban and his allies has increased lately.
Trump last month called Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine’s president since 2019, a “dictator” for not holding elections, even though martial law precludes any vote because of the war.
Amid a rush of online disinformation targeting Ukraine, here are some key Hungarian statements:
– West provoked Russia into war –
Orban regularly breaks EU unity on Ukraine, to which he has refused to send arms since Russia invaded in 2022, while slamming EU sanctions on Moscow.
In his weekly radio address on Friday, he warned again EU membership of Ukraine would “ruin” the bloc.
The nationalist leader also did not join EU leaders, shaken by the prospect of US disengagement, in signing a text on Thursday in support of Ukraine.
In late February, Orban blamed the West for provoking Moscow into the conflict.
“The war is not really about Ukraine, it is about the fact that the territory called Ukraine — which has been a buffer zone, a buffer state, between NATO and Russia — should be brought under the auspices of NATO,” Orban said in his annual state of the nation address.
“Why European and American liberals thought that the Russians would stand idly by and watch this, is still a mystery,” he added.
Trump has blamed Ukraine over the war, saying “you should have never started it”.
Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, with Russia occupying almost 20 percent of the country’s territory.
– ‘Never existed’ –
Echoing a narrative often employed by Putin, Hungary’s parliamentary speaker Laszlo Kover this week said Ukraine was a “country that actually has never existed in history”.
“It has no real political history, no real political elite, no tradition of governance,” the ultraconservative politician and Orban ally said in a Tuesday radio interview, adding that only those remain “who are incapable of defending themselves and those who have unscrupulously exploited the weaker”.
Ukraine, a nation of more than 40 million people, has had a series of elected leaders since gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991.
Top Orban aide Balazs Orban — who has the same last name as the premier but is not related to him — in a Facebook post on Monday referred to the neighbouring country as a “problem called Ukraine” that now “must be dealt with by the pro-war Europeans”.
Hungary’s pro-government newspaper Magyar Nemzet published opinion pieces, calling Ukraine a “rotten mafia monster state” and referred to the killings in Bucha — where Russian forces are accused of slaying hundreds of civilians — as “false flag theatrics”.
A 2022 UN Human Rights report said Russian forces killed civilians in Bucha and other cities.
AFP reporters were among international journalists to document bodies in the streets of Bucha, including some with their hands tied.
– ‘Bought’ celebrities –
Hungary’s nationalist premier has also referenced in interviews conspiracy narratives about a “global left-wing network” having supposedly “bought” journalists and even US celebrities to boost Zelensky’s popularity.
“Hollywood stars were paid to go to Kyiv. They paid them millions of dollars,” Orban said in a recent interview with state radio.
The Hungarian government did not respond to AFP’s inquiry about the source of the allegation.
The claim may originate from a debunked video, purported to be from the US entertainment show E! News, which was shared by Elon Musk and prominent American conservatives.
It alleged without proof that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) “sponsored American celebrity visits to Ukraine… to increase Zelensky’s popularity among foreign audiences, particularly in the United States.”
Russian state media often quotes Orban’s remarks on Ukraine at length, according to Takacsy.
Orban “paints the same picture of the world that the Kremlin’s domestic propaganda would like to suggest… If they can quote the same criticisms of the West, the same accusations, from the mouth of an outsider, it gives extra credibility to the same criticisms,” the researcher said.
By AFP
March 8, 2025
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky addresses the US Congress as US Vice President Kamala Harris and US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hold a Ukrainian national flag he gave them on December 21, 2022 - Copyright AFP Yasin AKGUL
Shaun TANDON
Could support for Ukraine have survived the bitter and increasingly polarized politics of Washington?
When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made Washington his first foreign destination after Russia invaded his country, leaders of both major US parties escorted him to address Congress, where in his military fatigues he made the case for help.
Some Republicans stayed away during the holiday-season visit in 2022 but even many critics of aid came and listened. Joe Biden, then president, affectionately put his arm around Zelensky at the White House and his administration announced nearly $2 billion in additional weapons.
Such scenes, and the bipartisan veneer around them, are long gone.
When Zelensky visited President Donald Trump on February 28, an Oval Office meeting descended into an unprecedented on-camera feud, with Trump and Vice President JD Vance accusing Ukraine of ingratitude and the administration soon afterward freezing US assistance.
Even some Republicans supportive of Ukraine said Zelensky misread the politics, as he talked back to Vance by questioning the credibility of any promises by Russia.
Senator Lindsey Graham, a Republican ally of Trump, said he met with Zelensky ahead of the White House meeting and told him, “Don’t take the bait.”
After the White House meeting, Graham went so far as to say that Zelensky should quit. But Zelensky has since worked to repair the rift, writing a letter to Trump and agreeing to talks with US officials in Saudi Arabia.
– Politicized by Trump –
“It wasn’t at all inevitable that Ukraine would become a divisive political issue,” said Jordan Tama, an American University associate professor who has researched the effects of US polarization on foreign policy.
Tama said the turning point came when Trump and media pundits who share his “America First” worldview, notably Tucker Carlson, began to criticize aid to Ukraine.
Trump “has politicized Ukraine policy, moving it from an issue where there was bipartisanship to one where there’s more polarization,” he said.
Vance once said that he does not care what happens to Ukraine, as China is the larger priority.
The president’s son Donald Trump Jr. has taunted Zelensky on social media, recently sharing a deepfake video of an effete dancer with the Ukrainian leader’s likeness.
Tama said Trump pulled away Republicans who otherwise would have supported Ukraine, even though many in the party still do.
“Trump has generated more partisan division than there would otherwise have been. But the issue is not yet entirely split along partisan lines,” Tama said.
Immediately after Russia’s invasion, nearly 80 percent of Americans backed aid to Ukraine, according to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.
A recent CBS News/YouGov poll, however, found the public almost evenly divided on whether to send more assistance to Ukraine, with far more Democratic voters supporting aid.
– War-weary –
Leslie Shedd, until recently a top advisor to the Republican chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said there was still strong bipartisan support for Ukraine but that Zelensky had ignored advice.
“Many Republicans have used their own political capital to help Ukraine and are rightfully frustrated that President Zelensky seemed unwilling to help himself in that meeting,” said Shedd, now a fellow at the Atlantic Council.
She blamed Biden for not sending more decisive weapons earlier that could have benefited Ukraine.
It became more politically difficult to support aid when seeing a slow war of attrition, especially when voters are concerned about other issues such as inflation and illegal immigration, Shedd said.
“Republican voters in particular have had long grievances with the US government spending billions of dollars overseas while not addressing the problems they face at home,” she said.
Polls also show fewer US voters perceive a threat from Russia three years into the war.
Polling shows a mirror image of the Ukraine debate on the Middle East, with Republican voters overwhelmingly backing billions of dollars in weapons to Israel and Democrats more critical due to concerns over the rights of the Palestinians.
Foreign policy drew far more consensus in Washington during the Cold War, with both parties united in their opposition to the Soviet Union.
Tama, the political scientist, said polarization was aggravated by the consolidation of the two parties along ideological lines and by media fragmentation that has often left voters consuming slanted news or social media.
“More foreign policy issues are polarized along partisan lines than used to be the case,” he said.
“It’s hurting America’s reputation because it makes America look inconsistent and unreliable to our partners overseas.”
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