Ukrainians behind theft of EU citizens’ personal data – Orban
Ukrainian individuals and a Hungarian opposition party are behind the theft and leak of personal data of 200,000 Hungarians, Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said. He called the situation a “serious national security risk” that required an immediate state investigation.
The accusations, made in a video statement on Monday, follow reports in Hungarian media that a database with the names, addresses, and contact details of users who had downloaded the Tisza Party's Vilag organizing app was briefly published online late last week.
The pro-EU party and its leader Peter Magyar represent the main opposition to Orban's government.
“A serious scandal has shaken Hungarian public life. The personal data of 200,000 of our compatriots were published online without their consent,” Orban stated. “Based on current information, this data was collected by the Tisza Party.”
He said an analysis of the database showed “Ukrainian individuals were also involved in the data handling,” and he has ordered national security officials to lead the probe.
Both Tisza Party and their leader have denied any Ukrainian involvement in the app’s development. Magyar claimed on Sunday – without providing evidence – that the party’s app had been targeted by “international hackers... who are obviously backed by Russian services.”
However, a report by the Hungarian newspaper Magyar Nemzet suggested the leaked data originated from the Vilag platform, noting that early entries corresponded to developer and tester accounts, some with Ukrainian state identifiers.
Orban, a determined critic of Western military support for Ukraine, has repeatedly claimed that the EU and Kiev are conspiring to influence Hungarian politics in order to bring the Brussels-backed Tisza party to power in the 2026 elections.
Similar claims were echoed earlier this year by Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), which alleged that the European Commission was “studying regime change scenarios” in Hungary.
Brussels intends to bring Magyar to power in the 2026 parliamentary elections, “if not sooner,” the SVR claimed, adding that significant “administrative, media, and lobbying resources” are supposedly being deployed by Brussels, with Ukrainian intelligence services doing the “dirty work.”
