Hungary: Orban's latest hate campaign against Ukraine

After an ethnic Hungarian conscript died in unexplained circumstances in Ukraine, Hungary's leader has renewed his campaign against the neighboring country. DW's research shows he has been spreading falsified videos.Hungary has only just concluded a months-long campaign against Ukraine aimed at blocking it from joining the EU. The autocratic prime minister, Viktor Orban, and his political apparatus have been portraying their neighboring country as a mafia state, overrun with hordes of dangerous criminals who would rob, kidnap, and kill Hungarian people. If people thought this was the nadir of Orban's anti-Ukraine propaganda, they are in for a disappointment. The Hungarian leadership is portraying the death of a recruit of Hungarian origin in Ukraine on July 6 as an attack on the Hungarian nation as a whole, declaring Ukraine to be a sort of evil empire. And he's taking this stance, even though the circumstances of the man's death are not clear. Orban has claimed that "a Hungarian citizen was beaten to death in Ukraine." With no proof whatsoever, he is accusing Ukraine and the EU of covering up this supposed crime. He published a post on Facebook, on a black background, that read: "The truth cannot be silenced!" Pro-government Hungarian media have published hundreds of highly emotional articles about the conscript's death. Sandor Fegyir, Ukraine's ambassador to Budapest, was summoned — an unequivocal sign of anger in diplomatic circles. Hundreds of furious people, led by Orban's chief propagandist, Zsolt Bayer, demonstrated outside the Ukrainian embassy in the Hungarian capital. Outrage at circumstances of death In a letter to the dead man's parents, the Hungarian president, Tamas Sulyok, wrote that he was "utterly horrified" by what he had heard about the circumstances leading to their son's death. "Such a thing cannot happen in Europe," he said, adding that it "completely contradicts all human values" represented by European nations. So what actually happened? The man in question was a 45-year-old named Jozsef Sebestyen from the city of Berehove in the Transcarpathian region of Ukraine, home to almost 100,000 ethnic Hungarians. Berehove itself, just a few kilometers from the border with Hungary, has a population of 23,000, and around half are ethnic Hungarians. Sebestyen ran a guesthouse, and, like many ethnic Hungarians in Transcarpathia, he had both Ukrainian and Hungarian citizenship. Like most Ukrainian citizens of fighting age, he was registered with the Ukrainian military administration (TZK) after the outbreak of full-scale war in February 2022. In mid-June of this year, he was stopped by TZK personnel at a roadside checkpoint in Berehove. Sebestyen was mobilized, declared fit for military service, and sent for basic training. On July 6, he died in a psychiatric clinic in Berehove. Those are the verified facts. As far as all other aspects of the case are concerned, accounts differ widely, and have not been verified. Videos of unknown origin On July 9, the Hungarian pro-government portal Mandiner published a report that claimed Jozsef Sebestyen had been beaten with iron bars, so badly that he subsequently died of his injuries. The report cited and was based on a Facebook post by Sebestyen's sister Marta. However, this post either does not exist, or has been deleted. DW reached out to Marta Sebestyen, but she did not reply. We also contacted the editors of Mandiner, whose response was to publish an article declaring that they would not allow the issue to be "trivialized." After this, Mandiner also published videos that it said showed Jozsef Sebestyen after he was physically abused. In one video, he is seen kneeling in a field with paramedics and people in military uniform asking him questions. He has no visible injuries. After a while, he lets himself fall onto the grass. Two other videos show him crawling on all fours, on terrain that could be a training camp. He appears exhausted and confused. The videos do not show or indicate that he was subjected to violence. It is not clear who filmed these videos. Nonetheless, they have been circulated all over Hungary and shown repeatedly in pro-government media, including the news programs of the public-service broadcaster MTVA, as supposed evidence of the brutality of the Ukrainian military. Army denies mistreatment Reports by the MTVA news program Hirado also include a video of a man in a hospital, probably in intensive care. Captions on the video say it shows Sebestyen "in hospital shortly before his death," which was on July 6. However, DW has established that the video was first published on a Ukrainian Telegram channel on May 22, 2025. The owner of this channel, Vitaliy Glagola, has told DW that the video shows a different man, and that it is being misused by the Hungarian media. This video has also been posted by Viktor Orban on his TikTok and social media accounts. The news program Hirado has also misused a second video taken from Glagola's channel. This too was published on May 22, well before Sebestyen was mobilized. At the time of writing, neither the broadcaster MTVA nor the Hungarian office for government communication has responded to DW's written enquiries. In a statement dated July 10, 2025, the leadership of the Ukrainian land forces denied abusing Sebestyen in any way. The statement says he was brought to a training unit on June 15, 2025, and that he deserted three days later. It says he presented at the district hospital in Berehove on June 24, feeling unwell, and was transferred from there to a psychiatric hospital, where he died of a pulmonary embolism on July 6, "with no sign of any injuries indicative of violence." "Trianon trauma" The Ukrainian foreign ministry accuses Hungary of exploiting the Sebestyen case in a "manipulative manner and for political purposes." Indeed, Viktor Orban not only claims that "a Hungarian was beaten to death in Ukraine" — he goes on to assert that "such a country cannot be allowed to become an EU member." It is a continuation of his campaign to prevent Ukraine from joining the EU. So far, though, despite intense propaganda, this has been only moderately successful. But the Sebestyen case is different. Many Hungarians are very emotionally invested in the concerns of ethnic Hungarians in neighboring countries. Orban's regime has revived the issue of the "Trianon trauma" — a taboo subject for many years. It's one that has resonated strongly with the people. Hungary lost two-thirds of its territory and population under the terms of the Treaty of Trianon, which was signed after World War One, in 1920. These days, around two million ethnic Hungarians live in neighboring countries. Many Hungarians have been shocked and dismayed by the death of Jozsef Sebestyen. However, many are also starting to weary of Viktor Orban. It remains to be seen whether his latest campaign will change that. This article has been translated from German.