Hungarians will decide whether Ukraine can join the European Union, Orbán says

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban arrives for an EU summit at the Egmont Palace in Brussels, Monday, Feb. 3, 2025. (Nicolas Tucat, Pool Photo via AP)

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Hungary will be the one to decide whether Ukraine is able to achieve its hopes of joining the European Union in the future, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said Saturday in an escalation of his adversarial posture toward Hungary’s war-ravaged neighbor.

Speaking at an annual State of the Nation address in Budapest to a closed circle of party members and supporters, Orbán described Ukraine as a buffer zone between Russia and NATO countries, and predicted that, following a cessation of Moscow’s war, it would resume that role despite its ambitions to join the Western military alliance.

He added that whether Ukraine can one day join the 27-member EU “will be decided by the Hungarians.”

“Against the will of Hungary and the Hungarians, Ukraine will never be a member of the European Union,” Orbán said. “Ukraine’s accession would destroy Hungarian farmers, and not only them, but the entire Hungarian national economy.”

Unanimity is required among leaders of all EU countries for accepting new members.

Orbán, considered the Kremlin’s closest partner among EU leaders, has been the bloc’s primary impediment in its efforts to assist Ukraine in the country’s struggle to defend against Russia’s full-scale invasion. He has frequently criticized, and threatened to veto, EU sanctions against Russia over its aggression, but has ultimately always voted for them.

While Hungary, an EU and NATO member, has taken in Ukrainian refugees fleeing the conflict, it has also stood in the way of EU financial assistance to Kyiv and pushed for deeper economic and energy cooperation with Moscow despite the war.

Seeming to question Ukraine’s statehood, Orbán said Saturday that the war Russia launched nearly three years ago was “not even about Ukraine, but about the territory called Ukraine — which until now has been a buffer zone between NATO and Russia — being placed under the auspices of NATO.”

“Ukraine, or what remains of it, will again become a buffer zone,” Orbán said. “It will not become a NATO member.”

Those comments mirrored recent statements by members of U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, who have suggested Ukraine should abandon its hopes of joining NATO as a guarantor of its future security against potential Russian attacks.

Orbán, a Trump ally, has applauded the U.S. administration’s actions to dismantle the U.S. Agency for International Development, claiming, with no evidence, that the agency was used to fund liberal causes in Hungary aimed at toppling his government.

He has promised a reckoning for nongovernmental organizations, media outlets and rights groups that have benefited from funding by USAID, saying they would be eliminated in Hungary and face “legal consequences.”

On Saturday, Orbán doubled down on his earlier crackdowns on civil society and LGBTQ+ people, saying his government would send a commissioner to the United States to collect data on Hungarian entities that had received USAID funding.

“We must urgently create the constitutional and legal conditions, so that we do not have to sit idly by as pseudo-civil public organizations serve foreign interests and organize political actions before our eyes,” Orbán said.

He also announced that he would recommend that the Hungarian Constitution — which his party unilaterally authored in 2011 — be amended to say that a person is either a man or a woman, and hinted that his right-wing populist government would take steps to prohibit the annual LGBTQ+ Pride parade in Budapest this summer.

“I suggest we go on a counterattack here,” Orbán said. ”I advise Pride organizers not to bother with the preparation of this year’s parade ... Waste of money and time.”

Justin Spike, The Associated Press