The Orbán Regime as a Threat to Europe: Hungary’s Anti-Ukrainian Policy, Network of Influence in Transcarpathia, and the Decline of Democracy
Viktor BED
Research Institute for Strategic and Political-Legal Studies
Carpathian University named after Augustin Voloshyn
Uzhhorod,
7 November 2025
Viktor BED: When a state stops telling the truth, it begins to serve foreign gods. And then even the smallest hypocrisy becomes treason.
Geopolitical Realities and the Anti-Ukrainian Course of the Orbán Regime
Amid the Russian-Ukrainian war (2014–2024), the policy of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has increasingly exceeded the boundaries acceptable for a democratic member state of the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Under the guise of “defending national interests,” he has constructed a system of internal authoritarianism and external revisionism, which more and more openly serves the interests of Moscow.
Particularly alarming is that on Ukrainian territory, especially in the Transcarpathian region, the Orbán government has built a network of political, civic, educational, and cultural structures acting as agents of Budapest’s influence — all under the pretext of “protecting the rights of the Hungarian minority.”
Orbanism: A Political Model of Dependence on Moscow
Viktor Orbán, who once began his career as a young democratic reformer, has transformed into a European symbol of political relapse.
The government of Viktor Orbán consistently blocks military and financial assistance to Ukraine, systematically undermines the European Union’s sanctions policy against the aggressor state — the Russian Federation — and has effectively created within the EU a “fifth column” of the Kremlin to advance Moscow’s geopolitical interests [1].
Since 2022, when Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine (2014–2025) became a turning point for Europe, Hungary has finally turned into a transit hub of Russian influence — economic, political, and informational — within the European Union itself.
Orbán demonstrates a cynical “peace-making” rhetoric that in fact serves as a disguised sabotage of Western unity.
A characteristic marker of this duplicity was his behavior in July 2024: for the first time in more than two years of full-scale war, he visited Kyiv to speak about “the need for peace,” yet the next day he flew to Moscow to meet with Putin [2].
This diplomatic gesture became a demonstrative disregard for Ukrainian sacrifices and a clear signal of Budapest’s true geopolitical priorities.
Hungarian Network of Influence in Transcarpathia: Politics under the Cover of “Minorities”
The Orbán regime deliberately exploits the Hungarian ethnic card in Transcarpathia as a tool of pressure on Ukraine.
Under the slogans of “protecting Hungarian cultural autonomy,” a number of structures operate in Ukraine that maintain a direct political, financial, and personnel connection with Budapest.
These include the Society of Hungarian Culture of Transcarpathia (TUKZ/KMKSZ), the Party of Hungarians of Ukraine (KMKSZ), the Democratic Party of Hungarians of Ukraine, and the Ferenc Rákóczi II Transcarpathian Hungarian University (formerly — Institute) [3].
Through these organizations, Hungary implements a long-term strategy of influence on the socio-political life of Transcarpathia, using the ethnic factor as an instrument of foreign policy.
Among the key public figures representing and promoting this Orbánist line are Ildikó Orosz — Deputy of the Transcarpathian Regional Council, Head of the Standing Committee on Education, Science, Spirituality and National Minorities, and President of Rákóczi University; and Vasyl (László) Brenzovych — Head of TUKZ/KMKSZ and the KMKSZ Party, former Member of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine (8th convocation, elected from the “Petro Poroshenko Bloc”), who currently hides in Budapest under the political protection of Viktor Orbán.
Criminal proceedings have been initiated against him in Ukraine, including charges of state treason and related anti-Ukrainian activity.
Thus, through the network of controlled organizations and educational institutions created by them, the Hungarian side is effectively forming a parallel political and cultural space, which in essence undermines Ukraine’s sovereignty in the border region and serves as an instrument of hybrid influence on the state policy of Ukraine.
Moral Degradation and Geopolitical Short-Sightedness of the Orbán Regime
Despite the rhetoric about “Christian values,” Viktor Orbán’s policy reveals a profound moral decline.
He and his entourage use the Church and traditional symbolism merely as political cover, while in practice they support dictatorships and those responsible for humanitarian crimes.
A striking contrast was demonstrated by the Hungarian opposition: in July 2024, following Russia’s missile strike on the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv, opposition politician Péter Magyar arrived in the Ukrainian capital, mobilizing benefactors to assist the injured children [4].
This act revealed the true face of European Hungary — compassionate, humane, and capable of solidarity.
Against this background, Viktor Orbán appears as a morally empty vassal of the Kremlin, one who trades away principles for political survival.
The external-policy short-sightedness of Orbán’s course is equally evident: Budapest is isolating itself within the EU, blocking community decisions, eroding partners’ trust, and internally dismantling independent media, the judiciary, and civil liberties.
Geopolitical Consequences for Ukraine and Europe
For Ukraine, the policy of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán represents a constant hybrid threat along the western border.
The authorities, public organizations, educational and cultural institutions, and agents of influence controlled by Budapest in the Transcarpathian region consistently promote ideas of “administrative-territorial autonomy,” “dual citizenship,” and “special status for the Hungarians of Transcarpathia.”
By their nature and methods, these actions reproduce a model of destabilization reminiscent of the Donbas scenario, though in a localized, so-called “soft” form [5].
For the European Union, Orbán’s Hungary — which has effectively become a political ally of the authoritarian regimes of the Russian Federation and the People’s Republic of China — has turned into the weak link of European security.
Such a foreign-policy orientation undermines EU unity and its sanctions policy, complicates interaction with NATO, and threatens Europe’s energy and economic independence from Moscow and Beijing.
By exploiting access to decision-making within European institutions, the Orbán regime effectively serves as a mouthpiece for Russian and Chinese interests inside the European Union, turning Hungary from a partner into an internal factor of destabilization for the Euro-Atlantic community.
If Hungary does not change its current political course, it will inevitably face further marginalization, financial isolation, and population outflow.
History has already known similar periods of Hungarian decline — notably in 1867–1918, when the policies of the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy and the imperial ambitions of the Kingdom of Hungary within it led to the empire’s collapse; and again in 1918–1946, when revanchist aspirations and collaboration with totalitarian regimes, including the Nazi Third Reich (1933–1945), resulted in another national catastrophe.
Today, by repeating the same flawed models of external orientation that once brought it to ruin, Hungary risks again finding itself on the periphery of European development — trapped between its authoritarian past and a lost democratic future.
Final Conclusions and Geopolitical Guidelines
Viktor Orbán’s Hungary today is not an ally but a systemic problem for Europe.
Its foreign policy increasingly resembles a hybrid form of cooperation with authoritarian regimes, undermining the very foundations of democracy, the rule of law, and European solidarity.
Ukraine, the strategic priorities are clear:
- to strengthen state presence and control in the Transcarpathian region;
- to neutralize foreign agent networks and political influences operating under the guise of cultural and educational cooperation;
- and at the same time, to support Ukrainian Hungarians as full-fledged citizens of Ukraine, engaging them in the nation-building and state-building process.
For the European Union, the time has come to recognize the obvious: the Orbán regime is a crack in the walls of European democracy, through which Russian and Chinese influence seeps in.
If this crack is not sealed by political and legal means, it may grow into a crisis of trust and a fracture of the Euro-Atlantic community itself.
References
- Center for Countering Disinformation (CPD). Why Viktor Orban is pursuing an anti-Ukrainian policy and how the West reacts to it. URL: https://cpd.gov.ua/en/bez-kategoriyi/why-viktor-orban-is-pursuing-an-anti-ukrainian-policy-and-how-the-west-reacts-to-it (Accessed 6 November 2025)
- European Newsroom. Hungary wants to form a coalition against Ukraine with other EU countries. URL: https://europeannewsroom.com/hungary-wants-to-form-a-coalition-against-ukraine-with-other-eu-countries (Accessed 6 November 2025)
- New Eastern Europe. Foreign interference in the Zakarpattia region of Ukraine: the 2019 elections and beyond. URL: https://neweasterneurope.eu/2020/05/06/foreign-interference-in-the-zakarpattia-region-of-ukraine-the-2019-elections-and-beyond (Accessed 6 November 2025)
- The Kyiv Independent. Opposition politician Péter Magyar arrives in Kyiv after strike on Ohmatdyt. URL: https://kyivindependent.com (Accessed 6 November 2025)
- Cambridge University Press. Small but salient: The securitization of Ukraine’s ethnic Hungarian minority. URL: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/nationalities-papers/article/small-but-salient-the-securitization-of-ukraines-ethnic-hungarian-minority/AA2A44B1DAC15AB7B5C1C92175DA947F (Accessed 6 November 2025)
