Hungary lifts Orban-era ban on Ukrainian media

Hungary’s new government has officially overturned a nine-month-long ban on Ukrainian media imposed by the former Viktor Orban administration, as the country seeks to mend ties with Ukraine, Hungarian Social Relations and Culture Minister Zoltan Tarr wrote on Facebook on June 19.

Tarr said that the decision by Orban's Fidesz party to block 12 Ukrainian newspapers in September 2025 only sought to deepen divisions between Kyiv and Budapest. The new government, under Prime Minister Peter Magyar, is focused on building "good-neighborly relations," he added.

Tarr’s announcement came several days after Hungary's Ambassador to Ukraine Fedir Sandor told Ukrainian media outlet European Pravda on June 17 that the ban would be repealed.

Orban — who was seen as the EU’s most Russia-friendly leader — imposed the ban during one of Budapest’s many diplomatic feuds with Kyiv during Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

In mid-September, Ukraine restricted access to several foreign publications for consistently promoting Russian narratives and propaganda, including Hungarian media outlets Origo and Demokrata.

Orban’s Fidesz government called Ukraine’s actions "a completely unjustified attack." In response, Budapest blocked 12 Ukrainian media outlets, including Ukrainska Pravda, European Pravda, New Voice, Hromadske, and TSN, which are widely read in Ukraine.

Then-Cabinet Minister Gergely Gulyas defended the Hungarian outlets, saying they "dared to write critically about the policy of sanctions against Russia, Ukraine’s armed support, and portray the EU and NATO as fragmented and ineffective organizations."

Tarr wrote that the newspapers violated press ethics and "instead spread Russian propaganda and World War III threats."

Ukraine has not announced whether it will lift its ban on the Hungarian newspapers. While the Kyiv Independent was able to access Origo’s website, the website for Demokrata remained blocked.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry did not respond to the Kyiv Independent’s request for comment by the time of publication.

Magyar and the new government are focused on mending relations with Ukraine, which Orban systematically undermined. Earlier in the week, Magyar launched an "immediate" internal investigation into government agencies implicated in the so-called "gold convoy" scandal.

In early March, Hungarian authorities seized two bank vehicles traveling from Austria to Ukraine that were transporting a shipment of cash and gold worth about $82 million, on the grounds that they were investigating a money-laundering scheme.

Employees of Ukraine’s state-owned Oschadbank who were accompanying the shipment were briefly detained by Hungarian authorities before being released the next day. Kyiv dismissed all accusations and condemned the seizure as "state terrorism."