FACT CHECK: Did Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban Say He Does Not Care About Ukraine?
A post shared on Facebook claims Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he does not care about Ukraine because he is Hungarian.
Verdict: False
There is no record of Orban making such a statement. A spokesperson for the Hungarian government denied the claim.
Fact Check:
The war in Ukraine has now raged for nearly five months and claimed the lives of more than 4,500 civilians, according to the U.N. Heavy fighting continues to occur in east Ukraine, BBC News reported.
A post shared on Facebook claims Orban recently said he does not care about the situation in Ukraine despite Hungary sharing a border with the country. (RELATED: Did A Pentagon Official Say George Soros And Volodymyr Zelenskyy Are Cousins?)
“Hungarian PM Viktor Orban responding to #Zelensky: ‘I don’t care about the States and #Ukraine. I am a Hungarian by nationality, and I do not want to lose my country because of an idiot who made a massacre in the center of Europe, and with whom, with Russia,'” reads the post.
There is no record of Orban making such a statement. Check Your Fact found no credible news reports attributing such a comment to the prime minister nor could the quote be found anywhere on the Hungarian government’s website. There is likewise no record of it on Orban’s official website, which includes archives of all of his speeches, interviews and letters.
“The quote attributed to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán does not belong to him,” said a spokesperson for Hungary’s International Communications Office in an email to Check Your Fact. “The post you are referring to is fake news.”
Hungary has condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and sent at least 37 million euros in aid to the war-torn country, according to Hungary Today. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees have also crossed through Hungary and more than 24,000 have been granted temporary permission to stay in the country, the U.N. reports.
While Orban has pledged to keep Hungary out of the war he has also welcomed Ukrainian refugees and expressed his willingness to help them, according to NBC News.
