Ukraine's Foreign Ministry said it had summoned Hungary's ambassador to Kiev to protest Budapest's accusations of Ukrainian interference in Hungary's upcoming parliamentary elections, Reuters reported, quoted by BTA.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has stepped up his criticism of Ukraine in recent weeks and is trying to link Hungarian opposition leader Peter Magyar to Kiev and the EU executive amid the intensifying election campaign.
Orban and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky have engaged in a war of words after Zelensky accused the Hungarian prime minister, without mentioning his name directly, of trying to “sell out European interests interests“.
In response, Orban called the Ukrainian leader “a man in a desperate situation“ as the fourth anniversary of the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine approaches.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó today criticized the actions of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry in a post on “Facebook“.
“Based on what was said to the ambassador after he was summoned, we must be prepared for the Ukrainians to continue their blatant and gross interference in the April elections in favor of the interests of the (opposition) TISA party,“ Szijjártó said.
Orbán, who has been in power since 2010, will face a strong opponent in the upcoming elections for the first time, with most polls showing Magyar's center-right TISA party ahead of Orbán's right-wing nationalist Fidesz party amid three years of economic stagnation in the country.