Orban asks Zelenskyy to «stop bothering» Hungary after drone incident

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to «stop bothering» his country.

He wrote about this on his page on the social network X.

«Hungary is a member of NATO and the EU. Ukraine would have collapsed long ago without the support of these two organisations. President @ZelenskyyUa, with all due respect, stop bothering us!» Orban said.

His appeal is likely related to the recent incident when a drone that violated Ukrainian airspace allegedly came from Hungary. Zelenskyy claimed that the drone could have been reconnoitering industrial potential in Ukraine's border areas.

In response to this statement, the Hungarian Ministry of Defence said that the reports of a Hungarian drone on the territory of Ukraine «are not true». Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó added that Ukraine «would not succeed in dragging us into its war».

Later, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at a briefing on 27 September that the Ukrainian Armed Forces and intelligence had published evidence of the incident, as Hungary had tried to accuse Ukraine of making things up.

«Everything is there, the movement is recorded electronically, there are photos, there are different things. That's why I don't see any steps towards us from the Hungarian leadership. But, of course, we are always ready for dialogue,» the president said.

Zelenskyy also stressed the danger of such actions by Hungary:

«It is very important that a Hungarian intelligence officer is studying on the territory of Ukraine. I understand that, in principle. And I believe that they are doing very dangerous things. Very dangerous things, primarily for themselves,» he stressed.

Subsequently, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Andrii Sybiha published a map of the route of the Hungarian drone, which crossed the border and flew more than 40 km into the territory of Ukraine, on the social network X.

Earlier, the Hungarian Foreign Ministry said that Budapest would block Ukraine's accession to the EU, regardless of Russia's opinion.