Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó announced on Facebook on Feb. 1 that Zsolt Rebán, a Hungarian citizen, had died on Jan. 18 during forced conscription in Ukraine.
“They wanted to conscript him, but he fell ill at the training center due to a heart condition and unfortunately passed away,” the foreign minister said. According to government officials, Rebán had suffered from heart disease since childhood and had been officially declared unfit for military service on multiple occasions.
According to Balázs Orbán, political director to Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Rebán was “taken from the street by force and pushed into conscription,” despite his documented medical condition. He was allegedly stopped by law enforcement officers on Jan. 6 while returning home from work and taken to a training center near Lviv. Official documents list the cause of death as heart and respiratory failure accompanied by mild pneumonia. Rebán’s medical exemptions had failed to protect him, the political director stated.
The case echoed the death of József Sebestyén in July 2025. According to Hungarian officials, the 45-year-old ethnic Hungarian from Transcarpathia was beaten by Ukrainian conscription officers and died weeks later in a Berehove hospital, allegations which Ukraine denied. According to the Ukrainian General Staff, an autopsy showed Sebestyén died from a pulmonary embolism with “no signs of physical injury indicating violence.”
The Ukrainian State Bureau of Investigation called Szijjártó’s claims “manipulative” and “not in line with reality.” The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs characterized Hungarian media reports about the incident as attempts to “play along with Russian propaganda.”
On Feb. 5, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had decreed that “all Ukrainian officials responsible for forced conscription will be expelled from Hungary without delay,” according to a post on his Facebook page. That same day, Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office Gergely Gulyás announced that Hungary had banned three Ukrainian military officials it felt were responsible for the forced conscription from entering the entire Schengen area.
“From a report presented to the government, it is clear that forced conscription is continuing,” Gulyás said at a government press briefing, adding that “last year, József Sebestyén died as a result, and now another Hungarian […] has become a victim. This is unacceptable even in a country under attack and at war.”
Szijjártó announced that the European Council’s legal service had confirmed Hungary’s proposal to sanction the three Ukrainian military leaders was “well-founded.” According to a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the legal service established that the three individuals “are indeed responsible for forced conscription in Ukraine.”
Szijjártó called on the EU to place the officials on the sanctions list immediately. Hungary had previously proposed EU-level sanctions against the officials in July 2025, following Sebestyén’s death. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha responded at the time by calling the Hungarian sanctions “unfounded and absurd,” and promising retaliatory measures.
Earlier, Szijjártó had repeatedly criticized Brussels for its silence on the conscription deaths.
“To date, not a single word has been uttered from Brussels against forced labor,” Szijjártó said in August 2025. The European Union has not issued public statements addressing Hungary’s specific allegations about conscription practices, but the European Council’s continued support for Ukraine’s “budgetary and military means” is effectively “an acknowledgement by Brussels that they condone it,” Szijjártó claimed.
“With Brussels turning a blind eye, giving tacit or explicit approval, people in Ukraine are being beaten, humiliated, abducted, and in some cases, beaten to death,” he alleged.
The rhetoric intensified on Feb. 7 when Orbán declared Ukraine an “enemy” of Hungary during a speech at a rally in Szombathely (215 km southwest of Budapest by road). Referring to Ukraine’s demands that the EU halt imports of Russian energy, Orbán said, “Anyone who says this is an enemy of Hungary, so Ukraine is our enemy.”
He also reiterated Hungary’s opposition to Ukraine’s EU membership, stating: “Hungarians should not want military or economic cooperation with Ukrainians, because they are dragging us into war.”
On Feb. 9, Szijjártó announced that it would be providing consular protection to a “Hungarian man recently arrested in Ukraine who tried to help five people flee to Hungary.” He emphasized that “as the fourth anniversary approaches, everyone is fed up with the Russia–Ukraine war” and called for an immediate end to “violent conscription.”
Szijjártó described Ukrainian mobilization practices as “an open manhunt” and stated that “the Ukrainian people do not want to die, but every day we see footage of violent conscription campaigns, often involving open manhunts on the streets of Ukrainian cities.”
This article was first published in the Budapest Business Journal print issue of February 13, 2026.
Producing journalism that is worthy of the name is a costly business. For over 30 years, the publishers, editors and reporters of the Budapest Business Journal have striven to bring you business news that works, information that you can trust, that is factual, accurate and presented without fear or favor.Newspaper organizations across the globe have struggled to find a business model that allows them to continue to excel, without compromising their ability to perform. Most recently, some have experimented with the idea of involving their most important stakeholders, their readers.
We would like to offer that same opportunity to our readers. We would like to invite you to help us deliver the quality business journalism you require. Hit our Support the BBJ button and you can choose the how much and how often you send us your contributions.
