Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has once again sharply criticized Ukraine, calling it a “dangerous country” and stating that it should not be allowed to join the European Union. He made the remarks during his regular interview on Kossuth Radio, as reported by Hungarian outlets HVG and Telex.hu.
In the first 20 minutes of the broadcast, Orbán focused entirely on foreign policy topics, including Ukraine, the EU, and international security threats. When asked about banking fraud, he said:
Everyone who has a bank card is in danger.
According to Orbán, Hungarian citizens lose about 8 billion forints annually to fraud schemes, primarily targeting ordinary people rather than speculators. The government has been able to recover only 1.5 billion of that sum. He claimed that 80% of the fraudsters are Ukrainian:
These aren’t stupid criminals—they are sophisticated and clever. Ukraine is a dangerous country. That’s why it should not be admitted to the EU.
He also noted that 1.6 million Hungarians had already taken part in a national consultation on Ukraine’s EU membership, and that he personally voted against it.
Orbán expressed concern that Ukrainian bureaucrats are allegedly using the war as a pretext to pressure the EU and strip powers from member states:
We must resist this. Ukraine’s accession to the EU would be a tragedy for millions of Hungarians. There is crime and mafia activity there, and it would threaten our social and economic systems.
He further argued that admitting Ukraine would endanger Hungarian jobs, pensions, and agriculture. In his view, cooperation with Kyiv should only occur on a sectoral basis — through separate, mutually beneficial agreements between Hungary, the EU, and Ukraine.
Previously, Orbán stated that Ukraine should not join the EU because it would “soak up all the resources like a sponge.”
