“Putin told Hungary about the invasion in advance, the Hungarians want to get a part of Ukraine” – Secretary of the Ukrainian Security and Defense Council

Vladimir Putin told the Hungarian leadership in advance that the Russians would invade Ukraine, and the Hungarian government wants to get its hands on some of Ukraine's territory – Oleksiy Danilov, secretary of the Ukrainian Security and Defense Council (SDC), said in a TV interview according to a report in the Ukrainian newspaper Hromadske.

“Hungary openly admits that it is working with Russia. In fact, Putin told them ahead of time that he would be attacking our country. For some reason they thought that they would be able to get part of our country. But that will never happen. It remains to be seen what the consequences will be for that country once the war is over.”

– Danilov is quoted saying.

TCH, Babel and Interfax Ukraine cite the same allegations, but neither mentions how or with what Danilov substantiatied this statement, or what source he cited – if any.

This is not the first time the subject has come up: In March, Poland’s former Deputy Prime Minister, Roman Giertych suggested that Putin had a secret plan and had tried to get both Orbán and the Poles involved in the war against Ukraine, having promised Transcarpathia to Orbán in exchange for his help. No evidence was given at this time either.

We have sent questions about this statement to Bertalan Havasi, head of the PMs press office), Zoltán Kovács, the Hungarian Government’s International Spokesman, The Government’s Information Centre, as well as the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.

A reaction finally came from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade with State Secretary Tamás Menczer commenting on Danilov’s sentences in a Facebook post saying: “we are not supplying weapons to the war in Ukraine”.