Fresh details emerge of how Hungarian foreign minister coordinated with Russia on actions to harm Ukraine

The European investigative journalism project VSquare has published a new report detailing how Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó coordinated with Russia on blocking Ukraine's path to EU membership and other similar moves.

Source: European Pravda citing VSquare's report released on 8 April

Details: VSquare has released new details of conversations between Szijjártó and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that confirm that Hungary's use of its EU veto was coordinated with Russia.

The recordings cover the period from 2023 to 2025. Their authenticity has been confirmed by several investigative journalism projects, including Frontstory, Delfi Estonia, The Insider, and the Investigative Center of Ján Kuciak (ICJK).

A previous part of the investigation established, among other things, that at Lavrov's request, Szijjártó had lobbied to have a relative of Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov removed from the EU sanctions list.

In many of the conversations, Szijjártó gave Lavrov information about the next steps European countries were expected to take to increase pressure on Russia, and consulted with him regarding actions that would be directed against Ukraine and the EU while benefiting Russia.

It is noted, for example, that during a European Council summit on 14 December 2023, when leaders were due to decide on the opening of accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova, Szijjártó phoned Moscow during a break between meetings and described Hungary's "blackmail strategy". It didn't work on that occasion, as Orbán eventually stepped out "for a coffee" and the decision was taken without him.

On 2 July 2024, when Orbán visited Kyiv, Szijjártó phoned Lavrov immediately to relay the substance of their conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and discussed arrangements for Orbán to visit Moscow ahead of a NATO summit in Washington, at a time when Hungary had just taken over the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU. The plans were kept secret from the EU and NATO – something that was later sharply criticised by European officials in private.

Szijjártó assured Lavrov that Orbán would go to Moscow as leader of the EU's presiding state, even though Orbán had not been given such a mandate by the EU, which later distanced itself from the visit.

"Now it emerges from their phone call that he went as the representative of the Council. It is wild how Szijjártó begs for an invitation for Orbán to Moscow... Quite clearly, the Hungarians [were] deceiving the European Union," an unnamed high-ranking EU official said.

The recording of another conversation also revealed that Lavrov had a request of his own for Szijjártó. He asked for a document setting out the EU's demands on Ukraine within the accession talks regarding minority languages. Szijjártó said it was "not a problem" for him to send it. An official EU source said "with 99 percent certainty" that the document was likely to have been the negotiating framework, and that the request seemed strange because the document had already been made public.

In a conversation between Szijjártó and Lavrov that took place on 17 June 2024, Szijjártó described how Hungary was using the issue of obligations regarding minority rights to put pressure on Ukraine. Lavrov then turned the discussion to how the "protection of Russian speakers" could be used to obstruct Ukraine's European integration through that issue as well. Szijjártó assured him that this was a "universal principle regulating the Council of Europe", and that "one day it is your minority and then the next day ours".

In one conversation, Szijjártó also said he had coordinated with his Slovak counterpart Juraj Blanár to block the EU's 18th sanctions package.

Background:

• Bloomberg has reviewed a transcript of a leaked phone call between Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin last autumn in which Orbán assured Putin of his friendship and offered his assistance in resolving the war in Ukraine.
• In European capitals friendly to Ukraine, the revelations concerning the coordination between Budapest and Moscow have been described as outrageous and as posing a threat to European security.

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