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Ukraine Slams Orbán After He Calls Kyiv a Wartime Mafia and Urges EU to Cut Funds

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Photo of Vlad Litnarovych
Vlad Litnarovych
News Writer
A man dressed as a zebra during a protest in Budapest, Hungary, on September 21, 2025, on Heroes Square, demanding cleaner politics and a nationwide ban on political advertising. (Source: Getty Images)
A man dressed as a zebra during a protest in Budapest, Hungary, on September 21, 2025, on Heroes Square, demanding cleaner politics and a nationwide ban on political advertising. (Source: Getty Images)

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán faced a sharp rebuke from Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry after he accused Kyiv of being run by a “wartime mafia” and urged the EU to stop funding Ukraine with the ministry’s spokesperson, Heorhiy Tykhiy, mocking Orbán by posting an edited photo of the Hungarian leader wearing a zebra-patterned suit—a reference to a recent corruption scandal involving exotic animals on Orbán’s private estate on X on November 13.

Tykhiy responded to Orbán’s latest posts, in which the Hungarian prime minister claimed that a corruption case in Ukraine proved that European funds were being misused.

Orbán wrote that “a wartime mafia network with countless ties to President Zelenskyy has been exposed,” adding that “we will not send the Hungarian people’s money to Ukraine.”

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry dismissed the criticism as hypocritical.

“Lectures about corruption from a politician who is embroiled in corruption scandals and has made his country the poorest in the EU? No, thanks,” Tykhiy wrote.

The zebra imagery referenced an investigative report released in Hungary earlier this year, which revealed that an estate linked to Orbán contains a private menagerie of exotic animals—including zebras—raising new questions about unexplained wealth and political favoritism within his circle.

On the other hand, the German government says it continues to trust Ukraine despite a developing scandal involving alleged corruption in the energy sector.

Earlier, reports emerged that Budapest was actively seeking to partner with Czechia and Slovakia to establish a Ukraine-skeptic alliance within the European Union, a move explicitly aimed at coordinating opposition to supporting Ukraine.

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