The rapprochement between Hungary and Ukraine began on May 18 when Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha praised the “principled and swift reaction” of Hungarian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Anita Orbán in summoning Russia’s ambassador to Hungary following drone strikes against Transcarpathia, which is home to approximately 100,000 ethnic Hungarians.
During their first phone call the same day, the two ministers announced that expert-level minority rights consultations would begin within days, with both governments designating negotiation delegations. The first round took place online on May 20, with Orbán, Sybiha, and Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Taras Kachka participating. Afterward, Orbán described them as “important steps toward rebuilding our bilateral relations and strengthening future cooperation.”
Some two days later, on May 22, Sybiha and Orbán held their first in-person meeting on the sidelines of a gathering of NATO foreign ministers in Helsingborg, Sweden, and agreed to a second round of consultations for the following week.
“We both recognize the importance of progress on this track; we seek to find constructive solutions and achieve tangible results,” Sybiha remarked on X after the meeting.
The second round of talks took place in the final week of May, with Ukrainian broadcaster Suspilne reporting on May 28 that nine of the 11 Hungarian demands had been met. The demands, carried over from the previous Orbán administration, include the restoration of Hungarian as a language of instruction past primary school, the right to sit a secondary school examination in Hungarian, and the use of Hungarian in public administrative life. The dispute dates back to 2017, when Kyiv adopted legislation making Ukrainian the mandatory language of secondary education, a policy that Budapest argued disadvantaged ethnic Hungarian students.
The two remaining demands concerned parliamentary representation for the Hungarian minority and amendments to Ukraine’s “cultural autonomy” provisions, which govern minority rights in areas including education, cultural development, and public symbols. The European Commission welcomed “the ongoing bilateral engagement between Ukraine and Hungary on issues related to national minorities” and expressed confidence that the remaining issues “can be addressed through continued dialogue.”
The same day in Brussels, Magyar met NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte at the alliance’s HQ, reaffirming that while Hungary would provide humanitarian assistance to Ukraine, it would not deliver arms or combat equipment, a position Budapest has maintained since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The Kremlin welcomed the statement, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying peace would come sooner if other countries adopted a “similar approach,” according to Russian news agency Interfax.
The following day, Magyar met European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, who announced that the Commission would release EUR 10 billion in funds previously withheld over rule-of-law concerns, subject to implementation of reforms by the Magyar government, with a further EUR 6.4 bln to follow. “If I return every time with this amount of money, I might come back more often,” Magyar joked at their joint press conference.
Both leaders told reporters there was “absolutely no link” between the fund release and Ukraine’s EU accession process, with von der Leyen characterizing the latter as “merit-based,” and insisting that political considerations should not factor into it. She added that Ukraine had met all conditions necessary to open the first of six enlargement negotiating clusters and that there was “no reason to delay the process.”
EU accession negotiations are organized into thematic clusters covering groups of policy areas that candidate countries must align with EU law before membership can proceed. Opening each cluster requires a unanimous vote of EU member states, giving any single government an effective veto. Ukraine’s accession framework identifies six such clusters, each of which must be formally opened at an accession conference before substantive chapter-by-chapter negotiations within it can begin.
Magyar said Hungary would lift its veto on the first cluster only once Kyiv had provided guarantees on all 11 minority demands. The proposed meeting with Zelenskyy in Berehove (a city just across the border in Transcarpathia which is the cultural center of the Hungarian minority in Ukraine, and is known to Hungarian-speakers as Beregszász) remains subject to the same condition, he added. The EU is expected to call a vote on opening Ukraine’s first cluster on or around June 16.
This article was first published in the Budapest Business Journal print issue of June 5, 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.
