Hungarian Reactions to the War in Ukraine

"Russia attacked Ukraine this morning. Together with our European Union and NATO allies, we condemn Russia's actions", Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in a statement published on a social media site. The united opposition held a demonstration at the Russian Embassy in Budapest against the Russian aggression.

Hungary must stay out of this war, the most important thing is the security of the Hungarian people, he continued. There is no question of deploying soldiers and military equipment to Ukraine. Of course. we will provide humanitarian aid, he added.

"Our military and police units have started working at the Ukrainian border. "We expect the number of asylum seekers from Ukraine to increase after today's attack, and that we are prepared to take care of them, and will be able to meet this challenge quickly and effectively," he stated.

In the evening, a few hundred people, with leading figures of the Hungarian opposition parties among them, gathered in front of the Russian Embassy in Budapest to protest against the Russian aggression on Ukraine, chanting the slogan “Russians go home!” The prime ministerial candidate of the united opposition at the April 3 parliamentary elections, Péter Márki-Zay called for PM Orbán to stop the Russian participation in the enlargement of the Paks nuclear power station in Hungary and expel the “Russian spy bank” by which he referred to the Russian-led European Investment Bank in Budapest.

During the day, hundreds of people, many of them ethnic Hungarians, crossed the border from Ukraine to Hungary while the Hungarian Defense Forces continuously deployed units in the northeastern part of the country, prepared in case humanitarian assistance is needed, in case the internal forces need support in dealing with the wave of migrants, or in case the worst happens: armed groups drift into Hungarian territory.