Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán (C) attends the 7th meeting of the European Political Community in Copenhagen, Denmark, 2 October 2025. Photo: EPA/IDA MARIE ODGAARD
Hungary is seeking to form a “Ukraine-sceptic alliance” with fellow EU member states Czechia and Slovakia in an attempt to block continued European financial and military aid to Kyiv, a senior adviser to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán told POLITICO on Tuesday.
Balázs Orbán, who is unrelated to the Hungarian leader, said that the prime minister hoped to align with Czech billionaire Andrej Babiš, who on Monday was asked to form a new government after his populist ANO party won the most seats in the country’s recent parliamentary election, and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who is known for his pro-Kremlin sympathies.
The plan for the bloc envisages Hungary, Czechia and Slovakia meeting to coordinate their positions ahead of EU summits, Balázs Orbán said, adding that the grouping would become “more and more visible”, and noting that the so-called Visegrád Group of the three countries and Poland had united to oppose EU refugee quotas during the 2015 migrant crisis.
Fico, who halted Slovakia’s military aid to Kyiv upon taking office in 2023, on Sunday reiterated Bratislava’s determination not to join any EU initiatives “aimed at helping Ukraine manage the war and military spending”.
Babiš, who maintains close ties with both Orbán and Fico, has pledged to end Czechia’s military support for Ukraine, insisting that Prague already helps Kyiv through contributions to the EU budget.
Earlier this month, he told Ukrainian public broadcaster Suspilne that Ukraine was “not ready for the EU” and called on the country to concentrate on ending the war rather than seeking membership of the bloc.
POLITICO stressed, however, that any formal alliance between the three nations was still “some way off”, and noted that Poland, which has frequently backed Hungarian scepticism of Kyiv in the past, was unlikely to join any “anti-Ukraine bloc” under staunchly pro-Kyiv Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
Within Hungary, Orbán’s Fidesz party faces the biggest threat yet to its 15-year rule, with polls giving the opposition Tisza party headed by former Orbán ally Péter Magyar a narrow lead over Fidesz ahead of next year’s general election.
Although Magyar shares Orbán’s scepticism about EU aid to Ukraine, he recently branded the prime minister “the Kremlin’s most loyal ally” and has pledged to gradually reduce Hungary’s dependence on Russian oil and gas.
