Earlier in May, the European Commission proposed introducing legal measures next month to phase out the EU’s imports of all Russian gas and liquefied natural gas by the end of 2027. Orbán acknowledged that his government would be “open to negotiations” on the issue if the EU compensated Hungary for the cost of the energy ban.
While the EU has already imposed sanctions on most Russian oil imports, resistance from Hungary and Slovakia has enabled them to continue receiving gas and oil from Russia, triggering heightened tensions with Ukraine, who refused to renew a deal allowing the transit of these supplies through its territory.
Orbán argued that efforts to cut off Russian oil and gas would force Hungarian households to pay two to three times more for energy. Instead of a monthly bill of HUF 7,000 for electricity, households’ costs would rise to HUF 14,000 (EUR 35), while gas prices would spike from HUF 16,000 per month to EUR 54,000, he said.
Orbán added that this would ultimately cost households HUF 800 billion, which is “the same amount” it costs the government to subsidize household utilities. Households would feel the effects from September without government intervention, he asserted.
Not everyone is convinced. Energy expert Gábor Bali told broadcaster RTL, “If there was political will, Hungary could wean itself off Russian oil and gas by 2027.” While acknowledging that crude oil would be more expensive, he is confident there should be no fear of extreme price increases in the case of gas.
According to energy expert Attila Holoda, Russia has not supplied gas to Hungary at discounted, non-market rates for years.
“The idea that Russian gas is inherently cheaper is a myth rooted in Soviet-era pricing,” another expert commented, adding that “today’s Gazprom prices track international benchmarks just like any other supplier.”
Yet, government-backed think tank Századvég corroborated that a ban would force Hungarian households to pay market rates for energy rather than benefiting from the government’s price-cap scheme, potentially raising utility bills to 3.5 times their current level. According to their recent poll, 70% of respondents oppose the European Union’s proposed ban on Russian energy imports, with 55% believing the measure would devastate Hungary’s economy.
For his part, Orbán called on citizens to resist EU pressure by voting in the Voks 2025 referendum on Ukraine’s EU membership. Following the conclusion of distributing paper ballots, the Hungarian government enabled online voting in its non-legally-binding referendum.
Announcing this development in a Facebook post on May 26, State Secretary Balázs Hidvéghi of the Prime Minister’s Cabinet Office said that more than 1.2 million people had already participated, calling it “an extremely high figure within a few weeks.”
According to a recent survey by the Nézőpont Institute, public opposition to Ukraine’s European Union accession has risen to 67%, up from 62%, with the number of Hungarians opposing Ukraine’s membership increasing by over 300,000, bringing the total to 5.2 million. The survey reported that support for Ukraine’s EU integration dropped from 29% to 23%.
In non-energy-related news, Hungary’s government has called for an immediate explanation from Ukraine about press reports suggesting plans to ban the Transcarpathian Hungarian Cultural Association–Hungarian Party of Ukraine (KMKSz-UMP), the organization representing the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia.
“Hands off the Transcarpathian Hungarian Cultural Association!” Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó wrote on his Facebook page on May 27.
It is just the latest example of rising tensions between the neighboring countries. On May 21, the Budapest Prosecutor’s Office said a Ukrainian national suspected of espionage and other crimes had been detained for one month under Hungarian law. The detention, ordered to prevent the suspect from fleeing the country or obstructing evidence collection, was initiated on May 20. The defense has appealed the ruling.
The Prosecutor’s Office said there is a well-founded suspicion that the man had been commissioned by Ukraine’s military intelligence service to gather data and information. Based on this activity, the investigative authority suspects him of espionage and additional offenses.
Days earlier, Hungary’s national security services announced what they said was additional Ukrainian espionage activity, identifying Roland Tseber as an “illegal” officer of Ukraine’s intelligence service and István Holló, who is under investigation by the National Office of Investigation on suspicion of espionage.
At a press conference on May 20, Máté Kocsis, the parliamentary group leader of the ruling party Fidesz, said that Tseber had likely spent years cultivating ties with Hungarian opposition figures and had met several high-ranking politicians and parliamentary party officials.
Kocsis claimed that Holló had engaged in intelligence-gathering related to Hungary’s military and energy infrastructure in cooperation with Ukrainian military intelligence. He noted that Tseber, formerly a dual Hungarian-Ukrainian citizen, renounced his Hungarian citizenship in 2017 and later became a political figure in Ukraine, serving as a representative on the Transcarpathian County Council.
Tseber had been monitored by Hungarian national security authorities for years and was banned from entering or residing in Hungary earlier this year due to his escalating activities, Kocsis added.
This article was first published in the Budapest Business Journal print issue of May 30, 2025.
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