Orban deploys military to guard energy sites from “Ukrainian threat” as April election approaches

Hungary’s prime minister has a new enemy. According to Viktor Orban, it is Ukraine—and it is coming for Hungarian power plants.

The announcement

On February 25, after a meeting of Hungary’s Defense Council, Viktor Orban announced that Ukrainian forces were allegedly “planning new actions” to damage Hungary’s energy infrastructure—on top of halting the supply of Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline. He said he had ordered the military to be deployed to protect energy facilities across the country.

“I have ordered the strengthening of protection of energy infrastructure facilities,” Orban stated, as reported by HVG. “We will station military personnel near energy facilities and deploy the necessary means to prevent attacks. Police will patrol around designated power plants, distribution stations, and dispatch centers.”

He also announced a ban on drone flights in the border region with Ukraine.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto had set the stage earlier, claiming that the Druzhba pipeline stoppage was not the result of a Russian missile strike on Ukrainian infrastructure—as Ukraine maintains—but a deliberate political move by Kyiv to influence Hungary’s upcoming elections by hurting the Hungarian economy. Szijjarto confirmed that Hungary would continue blocking both the EU’s 20th sanctions package against Russia and the allocation of a 90 billion euro European loan to Ukraine, citing these grievances as justification.

Szijjarto also accused Ukraine, once again, of pursuing an “anti-Hungarian policy” and of “hatred” toward his country.

The context Orban leaves out

What Orban did not mention on February 25 is that parliamentary elections in Hungary are scheduled for April 2026—and that his Fidesz party is currently trailing the opposition Tisza party by a significant margin in the polls, according to Median.

The “Ukrainian threat” narrative did not emerge from nowhere. Insight News Media has previously documented how Russian-origin disinformation has been used to deliberately reignite Ukrainian-Hungarian tensions at sensitive political moments, with pro-government Hungarian media amplifying the narratives—sometimes before Budapest even officially adopts them. As our investigation showed, this is an established pattern, not a one-off incident.

The energy dependency angle is also not new. Orban’s government signed a long-term gas contract with Gazprom—routed specifically to bypass Ukraine—and has consistently blocked EU sanctions designed to reduce Europe’s reliance on Russian energy. As Insight News analyzed in depth, the foundation of Orban’s political positioning is a mix of post-imperial resentment toward Ukraine, energy contracts with Moscow, and domestic populism—a combination that makes “Ukrainian aggression” a particularly convenient frame when election pressure builds.

Budapest has blocked EU military aid to Ukraine, refused to allow weapons transit through its territory, and consistently vetoed financial support packages. It has also, as Insight News documented, used Russian money as what analysts call a “Trojan horse” inside EU decision-making. Accusing Ukraine of planning attacks on Hungarian power plants is a significant escalation of that rhetorical line—but it fits the same logic.

What this is really about

Hungary goes to the polls in April. Orban is losing in the surveys. And Ukraine, conveniently, has just stopped the flow of Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline—giving his government a ready-made grievance to campaign on.

Deploying soldiers to guard power stations against a neighbor that has not threatened Hungary, while simultaneously blocking that neighbor’s access to European funds and sanctions against the country actively attacking it, is not a security policy. It is a campaign strategy dressed up as one.

The pattern—a provocation, real or manufactured, followed by escalatory rhetoric against Ukraine, amplified by pro-government media ahead of a politically sensitive moment—is something Insight News has tracked across multiple cases.

Russia benefits from Hungarian-Ukrainian tensions whether or not Budapest coordinates with Moscow directly. The end result is the same: one more EU member state making it harder to support Ukraine, and one more leader telling his electorate that the real threat is coming from the East—just not the part of the East that is actually at war.