The former Ukrainian president criticised the Hungarian Prime Minister on social media because in his view Mr Orbán turned away from the values of freedom and European solidarity, and is today supporting forces which threaten Ukraine’s freedom. The former Ukrainian president calls upon the Hungarian prime minister to return to a moral position that is on the side of freedom and integrity.
In his reply, Mr Orbán referred to the former Ukrainian president as an old friend. He wrote: “We Hungarians have always been a nation of freedom fighters throughout our thousand-year history, and we will remain so. We are the nation that fought fearlessly for its freedom against the Ottoman armies, the troops of the Habsburgs, the Wehrmacht of the Third Reich, and the Red Army of the Soviet Union, in which the sons of many peoples once served. We continue this tradition today.
“Please warn your president: hands off the freedom of the Hungarians. Please convince your president not to blackmail my country or threaten its leaders. Hungarians are a free people. Your struggle for freedom does not entitle you to blackmail us or dictate terms to us. Please make your president understand that the state terrorism with which he blew up the Germans’ Nord Stream gas pipeline will not work against Hungary,” the Prime Minister wrote in his reply.
He added: “Let me remind you that when the war broke out, we welcomed your refugees. We gave them shelter, food, and safety. I ordered the launch of Ukrainian-language schools for your children, something that you deny to Hungarians in Transcarpathia. It is a shame that today the national minority rights of Hungarians in Ukraine are narrower than they were in the old, bad days,” the Prime Minister observed.
Mr Orbán wrote: “I thank God that the country you are now at war with is not an enemy of Hungary or the Hungarian people, and we have no intention of changing that. We still wish to remain your friends, but we will not take part in your war. Therefore, I ask you to accept that we will send neither money, nor weapons, nor soldiers to your war.”
“I wish that your fratricidal war will not end with the fatal weakening of the Ukrainian state, and that we may return to the old spirit of Ukrainian-Hungarian friendship,” the Prime Minister added, signing the post addressed to Viktor Yushchenko as “growing distant from you, but yours truly.”
In a postscript, the Prime Minister observed: “If any foreign power were ever to threaten you or your family, know that you can always count on me; there will always be a safe place for you with us.”
