Ukraine summons Hungary ambassador over election meddling allegations

KYIV, Jan 28 (Reuters) - ⁠Ukraine's foreign ⁠ministry ‍said it summoned Hungary's ambassador to Kyiv on Thursday to protest over Budapest's allegations of ‍Ukrainian meddling in the upcoming Hungarian parliamentary election.

Nationalist ​Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has intensified criticism of Ukraine ​in recent weeks, seeking to associate Hungary's opposition leader Peter Magyar with Kyiv and the European Union executive as the election campaign ​heats up.

Orban and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy have engaged in a public war of words, with ​Zelenskiy accusing Orban, without naming him directly, of trying to "sell out European ‌interests."

In response, Orban called his counterpart "a man in a desperate position" as Ukraine approaches its ​fourth anniversary of full-scale war ⁠since Russia invaded in February 2022.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto criticised the Ukrainian protest ‌on Facebook on Wednesday.

"Based on what was said at the summoning of the ambassador, we must be prepared for ‌the Ukrainians to continue their open and crude interference in the ‌April elections in the interests of the (opposition) Tisza party."

Orban, in power since 2010, is facing a strong challenger for the ‍first time with most polls consistently showing Magyar's centre-right Tisza party ahead of the ⁠premier's right-wing nationalist Fidesz after three years of economic stagnation.

(Reporting by Anna Pruchnicka and Max Hunder; additional reporting by Krisztina Than; writing by Max Hunder; editing by Sharon Singleton and Mark Heinrich)

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