Kyiv urges inquiry after leaked calls appeared to capture Hungarian foreign minister telling Moscow he would try to amend EU sanctions to its liking. What we know on day 1,498
Ukraine’s foreign minister has urged an investigation after leaked audio appeared to capture his Hungarian counterpart telling Moscow he would try to amend EU sanctions to its liking. Ukraine’s foreign minister Andriy Sybiga said: “these are not conversations. This is obsequious reporting to Russian patrons. Disgusting, it is a disgrace, and it really should be subject to investigation.” On Tuesday – days before an election in which Hungary’s Viktor Orbán is facing the toughest battle of his 16 years in power – a joint media investigation published a report that it said was based on leaked phone calls between Péter Szijjártó and his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov. In one, Szijjártó is alleged to have told Lavrov: “I am always at your disposal.” In another, he appears to offer help with other EU sanctions that have affected Russia. Szijjártó did not deny that the calls with Lavrov had taken place. Instead, he said his conversations had been intercepted. “It is a huge scandal … that foreign secret services were continuously wiretapping my phone calls and that these foreign secret services have now made these phone calls public one-and-a-half weeks before the Hungarian parliamentary election,” he said in a video posted to social media. The report prompted strong criticism from several EU figures, including the prime ministers of Poland and Ireland. In the EU, Orbán has remained close to Vladimir Putin after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine and has repeatedly blocked efforts by Brussels to present a united front in support of Ukraine, leading some critics to refer to him as Putin’s Trojan horse in the EU.
