A misquoted statement by PM Orbán, on alleged spy drones in Ukraine's airspace

HUNGARY - In Brief 30 Sep 2025 by Istvan Racz

---

A few days ago, President Zelenskyy accused Hungary of sending a spy drone into Ukrainian airspace on two occasions, both observed on September 26. The General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine even published maps to illustrate their claim, showing the alleged flying path of the Hungarian drone:The first map shows a flight path that has clearly nothing to do with Hungary, as it starts and ends equally deeply within Ukraine, and actually it falls much closer to the neighbouring Slovakia than to Hungary. The second one indeed shows a flight path that starts and ends in Hungary, and it follows the border between Hungary and Ukraine very closely, and so it remains a mystery what on earth it could have observed, which cannot be seen, with good binoculars, from the other side.But all this is not the story. The story is that after a few comments heard from Hungary's foreign and defence ministers, that the whole story sounds fake, the Brussels-based Politico, and then Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha (mis)quoted a television interview given by PM Orbán as follows:This expressly suggests that Mr. Orbán has admitted there was indeed a spy drone incursion from Hungary into Ukraine. But with due respect to both Politico and Minister Sybiha, this claim does not match the facts at all. In fact, Mr. Orbán said that he believes his ministers that there was no Hungarian drone mission towards Ukraine, adding that it would not have made sense anyway, the same way that it does not make much sense for Ukraine to concentrate on its western borders, from which direction none of its neighbours intend to launch an attack.We do not necessarily agree with Mr. Orbán that the sovereignt...