Minister Gulyás shares shocking information: previous military chief would have sent Hungarian soldiers to Ukraine

The European Commission would make central Europe, especially Hungary and Slovakia, “pay for Ukraine’s accelerated EU accession through a ban of Russian gas imports,” Gergely Gulyás, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office, said at a government press briefing on Thursday. Talking about the previous chief of staff of the Hungarian Defence Forces, Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi, Gulyás said that he “took a lot of liberties” as chief of staff and he “would have sent Hungarian soldiers to Ukraine.”

Gulyás said the price of electricity and gas would jump by 100 and 150 percent, respectively, for Hungarian households due to the ban on Russian gas and crude oil imports.

The minister also announced that the government would extend markup caps on household products.

Gulyás said “extremely negative processes” were taking place in the European Union, adding that the European People’s Party headed by Manfred Weber, whose members include EC President Ursula von der Leyen and the Tisza Party, had decided to support Ukraine unconditionally and fast-track the country into the EU.

The EC president on Wednesday made it clear that the plan was to open all accession chapters with Ukraine in 2025, while weapons deliveries would also continue, prolonging the war, Gulyás said.

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The EC also proposes ending imports of Russian gas and crude oil, which poses the biggest threat to Hungary, Gulyás said.

If Hungary had to buy gas and crude oil from elsewhere, that would cost one and a half to two billion euros more than what Hungary is paying now. This means that the price of gas and electricity would jump by 100 percent and 150 percent, respectively, for Hungarian households, while it would also become a lot more expensive for businesses, he said.

He said Hungary would do “everything possible” to oppose the plan so that Hungarians would not be made to pay the price of Ukraine’s EU accession. This is another reason why everyone should have their say on Ukraine’s accession in the ‘Voks 2025’ referendum vote, he added.

He said the commission’s proposal set out to deliberately harm Hungary, Slovakia and the entire central European region.

Gulyás said Hungary sought potential allies and it appeared they were there and their numbers could grow.

He said that ever since the US presidential election a quick peace settlement had become a possibility, and economic relations between Europe and Russia could be normalised in short order.

But the question now was whether Europe would abandon the principle set down in the bloc’s treaties that each member state can determine its own energy mix, he said.

The EC, he added, was now proposing that unanimity should not be necessary, adding that this was “unacceptable” to Hungary, and the government would do everything to prevent this from happening.

He said diversification should not mean switching from a kind of one-way dependence to another kind of one-way dependence, because that is what the elimination of Russian imports would result in. It would be physically difficult to provide Hungary with energy and it would also be substantially more expensive, he said.

Meanwhile, Gulyás said that after a discussion of economic issues at Wednesday’s cabinet meeting, the government decided to mandate a 15 percent cap on markups on more than 1,000 household products in 30 categories. He added that a cap on markups on a range of food products, rolled out earlier, had yielded positive results. He said the government trusted that these measures would bring down inflation.

Gulyás said the government had submitted a balanced budget bill for 2026, one that contained resources for family subsidies, economic development and pensions even during a difficult period.

He said the government’s 2026 budget bill was based on channeling financing to support Hungarian families, not Ukraine. The bill earmarks 4,800 billion forints (11.8 billion euros) for family policies, with over 800 billion forints allocated for maintaining the regulated utilities price scheme for households, he added.

He said Hungary was undertaking Europe’s biggest tax reduction programme, highlighting 320 billion forints for a personal income tax exemption for mothers of two and three, and 290 billion forints for the doubling of tax allowances for families with children.

The biggest budget line, he said, remained spending on pensioners, including the usual pension increase, an annual bonus and a growth-linked premium, to a value of 7,700 billion forints. The budget also allocates 5,500 billion forints for economic development, in addition to resources for a 13 percent minimum wage increase and a bonus for Hungarians in uniform, he added.

Referring to recent comments made by the defence minister that Hungary must be ready for war, Gulyás said: “It’s not an issue.” In the face of a threat of war, what was saying was self-evident and the right thing to do.
“In fact, we can all see that this is nothing to write home about. Nothing happened here. A defence minister is saying that the soldiers must defend the country. “Who else would be talking about this if not him?” Gulyás said.

He insisted that the Hungarian government had done everything possible in recent years in the interest of peace, but soldiers must prepare for war and the defence of the country, he said.

Gulyás said the difference was that whereas the previous chief of staff, Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi — who has taken up a role in the opposition Tisza Party — wanted to defend Ukraine and deploy soldiers to Ukraine, the defence minister and the Hungarian military “must defend Hungary”, he added.

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Gulyás also noted that the Hungarian prime minister talked about the need for a joint European defence force well before the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. “We were the ones who recognised that major change was taking place in the world, the threat of war was getting greater than before, and if somebody must prepare for this, it was the military,” he said.

Gulyás said the country needs a capable army “which can serve peace if it is ready for war anytime”, adding that the country’s security required a “suitably strong” military.

Meanwhile, Gulyás confirmed press reports that Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi had committed “egregious insubordination” when he “stepped beyond his mandate from the Hungarian government as chief of staff … and closed his remarks at a NATO session with the slogan “Slava Ukraini”.

Ruszin-Szendi, who is the opposition Tisza Party’s defence expert, had “promoted a pro-Ukraine and pro-war narrative” in NATO, while he “purported to present an anti-war narrative to the government”, Gulyás said. “He was aware of what he was doing … or else he would not have left it out of his reports,” the minister added.

The defence ministry has reported the matter to parliament’s national security committee, which will conduct the primary investigation into whether the former chief of staff is suspected of committing a crime, Gulyás said.

“Ruszin-Szendi’s activities have undoubtedly been shameful. What makes the difference is that we removed him because of those activities and Tisza has embraced him with regard to those same activities,” Gulyás said.

Ruszin-Szendi was aware that he had “overstepped his mandate … or else he would not have left it out of his reports,” the minister said, adding that it had been “egregious insubordination” by the former officer. He said Ruszin-Szendi had been given a clear mandate for his NATO counterparts’ meeting “but he presented components that were favourable for Ukraine but omitted ones aimed for peace and against an escalation of the war.”

Asked if he agreed with the “Slava Ukraini!” slogan, Gulyás said he thought Ukraine’s fight for their homeland “heroic”. He said he thought other members of the Hungarian governments were of the same opinion, but added that “we could question the correctness of a chief of staff concluding his contribution this way … if his address already contained mistakes he was certainly wrong to put it that way.”

Ruszin-Szendi “took a lot of liberties” as chief of staff, Gulyás said, adding that the former chief of staff “would have sent Hungarian soldiers to Ukraine.” “It would be unacceptable for Hungarian soldiers to fight for a country other than their own,” he added.

Gulyás said that while the Hungarian defence minister promoted Hungary’s defence, opposition Tisza advocated protection for Ukraine and its EU accession.

Commenting on Ukraine’s EU accession, Gulyás said respect for national minority rights — and in Ukraine’s case, “the lack of it” — was an red line for Hungary. The minimum requirement, at least in the case of EU minorities, would be to reinstate pre-2015 minority rights, he added.
If accession were merit-based, then Ukraine would join the EU before then middle of the next decade, he said. Yet, the European Commission president has said all accession chapters should be concluded this year, he said, adding that other better-prepared countries had been made to wait for decades.

Asked about President Volodymyr Zelensky’s assertion that 70 percent of Hungarians supported Ukraine’s accession, he said it was “mathematically inconceivable” that 58 percent of the closest supporters of Tisza party could equal 70 percent of all Hungarians. He added that the Tisza Party’s support for Ukraine’s EU accession was “dangerous, harmful and irresponsible”.

Put to him that Magyar denied Tisza supported Ukraine’s EU accession, Gulyás said said Tisza was drafting its government programme on the basis of the views of its voters, and they had decided to support Ukraine’s accession.

Gulyás also denied the claim that Hungary was the only EU country that opposed Ukraine’s accession. Even if this were the case, Hungarians alone would be able to veto its membership because the EU treaty requires unanimous support, he added.

He said the Hungarian government on its own could veto several points, but this should have the backing of public for the maximum impact of legitimacy as it was clear that the European Commission was not shy about questioning the rights of member states.

Gulyas said Ukraine’s EU membership would damage Europe and “fatally threaten” the region.

Meanwhile, he said Hungary’s exit from the EU had never been brought up as an option and such claims were “fake news” aimed at misleading voters. Gulyas said the government wanted a more effective EU, and giving more space in decision-making to political forces with the same vision as the EU’s founders would achieve this goal.