Hungary's new foreign minister calls Russian attacks on Ukraine unacceptable

Hungary summons Russian ambassador after drone attack on Transcarpathia

Russia’s ambassador to Hungary, Yevgeny Stanislavov, was summoned by Hungary in connection with Wednesday’s Russian drone attack on Ukraine, which also struck Transcarpathia. The ambassador arrived at 11.30 am at the Foreign Ministry and left half an hour later. Prime Minister Péter Magyar had announced the summons the previous day, and, similarly to Foreign Minister Anita Orbán, strongly condemned the attack on behalf of the Hungarian government. Magyar said it was the most intensive drone strike to hit Transcarpathia since the start of the war, with Mukachevo, Uzhhorod, Svalyava, and several smaller towns affected. Hungary’s state railway company, MÁV, also informed transport minister Dávid Vitézy that railway employees at Chop station near the Hungarian border had been forced to take shelter during the attack before later being brought into Hungary.

The response stands in sharp contrast to the previous government’s approach to Russia. Under former foreign minister Péter Szijjártó, ambassadors from countries including the US, Austria, Germany, Finland, Denmark, and Ukraine were repeatedly summoned over statements concerning Hungary. Still, the Russian ambassador was not called in even after Russian hackers breached the foreign ministry’s IT system in 2022 or after Russian strikes hit Transcarpathia in 2025. Following the latest attack, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy thanked Magyar for his compassion and firm stance. On Thursday, Anita Orbán also held the first general assembly for foreign ministry staff in 12 years, pledging to restore “the professional and strategic tasks that have been the strength of Hungarian diplomacy for decades”. Shortly after meeting the Russian ambassador, Orban urged Russia to do everything possible to secure a ceasefire.

'State of danger' due to war next door ends in Hungary

After six years, Hungary’s state of danger has come to an end. The state of danger, one of six forms of special legal order defined in Hungary’s constitution, differs from a state of emergency in that it allows the government to rule by decree without parliamentary approval. Viktor Orbán’s government first introduced the measure in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic and later maintained it in 2022, citing the war in Ukraine. At the time, Minister Gergely Gulyás said accusations from the opposition that the government wanted to maintain the special legal order indefinitely were unfounded, adding that it would end sooner than in most European countries. In the years that followed, however, Hungary’s Fidesz-KDNP parliamentary majority repeatedly extended the measure, allowing Orbán’s government to govern an entire four-year term under the special legal order.

After Tisza’s election victory, Péter Magyar asked Fidesz to prolong the state of danger until 31 May, saying around 160 emergency decrees remained in force and warning that an abrupt end could create legal chaos. Without an extension, decrees introduced during the pandemic and the war in Ukraine would have immediately lost validity. The outgoing government declined to extend the arrangement, and on 9 May, the new parliament voted to elevate the emergency decrees into law.

Warsaw expects the US to return ex-minister who fled via Hungary

Poland says it expects the United States to extradite former justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro after reports emerged that he had travelled there from Hungary, where Viktor Orbán had granted him asylum. Polish prosecutors said they were investigating how Ziobro, a central figure in Poland’s previous nationalist conservative government, managed to leave Hungary and enter the US on the same day as the inauguration of Orbán’s successor, Péter Magyar. Sikorski said Polish prosecutors would seek both European and international arrest warrants and that Warsaw expected “friendly countries to honour our request”. Ziobro, who was stripped of his Polish and diplomatic passports last year, confirmed to the rightwing broadcaster Republika that he was in the US, saying he had arrived in the “strongest democracy in the world”.

Polish prosecutors said Ziobro remained wanted under a domestic arrest warrant and noted that he had not possessed a passport for months, raising questions about how he entered the US. He faces charges carrying a possible 25-year prison sentence over allegations that he created and led a criminal group which diverted funds intended for victims of violence, including to purchase Pegasus spyware allegedly used to monitor political opponents. Ziobro denies the accusations, describing them as "politically motivated." Poland’s foreign ministry said it would seek explanations from both Washington and Budapest regarding the legal basis for Ziobro's leaving Hungary and entering the US. Ziobro said he travelled using asylum documents issued by Hungary, while Polish media reported he may have obtained a US journalist visa.