Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has backed calls for an independent probe to determine the circumstances that led to the massacre of civilians in Bucha, Ukraine, near Kiev.
Orban, who is a close ally of 45th President Donald Trump, said through his press chief that he “condemns the Bucha massacre” and wants answers for how it happened.
“Hungary fully supports an international investigation to identify the perpetrators in this bloodshed,” said spokesman Bertalan Havasi.
According to Hungary Today, this is part of an ongoing “international investigation aimed at identifying the perpetrators,” whether they be Ukrainian or Russian. Orban stressed the need for the investigation to be both “independent and impartial.”
On Wednesday, Orban said that “this is a war that Russia started attacking Ukraine, which is aggression” and stated that Hungary “shares” the European Union’s position.
Orban recently won his reelection campaign despite fiercely unified opposition from all other political parties in Hungary, including those traditionally on the far right and far left. He was endorsed by Trump, and the American Conservative Union (ACU) has announced that a CPAC-themed event will be held in the country.
CPAC Hungary was originally set to be held before the Hungarian elections, but it was delayed by the Russian invasion of neighboring Ukraine. Russia calls the invasion a “special military operation” to protect ethnic Russians from Ukrainian ethnic cleansing, while Ukraine and much of the international community say the invasion was unprovoked.
Orban’s victory speech raised eyebrows in the West when he used his electoral win to name and declare victory over his opponents.
Those opponents included Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Hungarian billionaire George Soros, the European Union, the global left, and the media.
He has been criticized by other European countries for being soft on Russia, which denies killing the civilians discovered in Bucha.
Russia, instead, claims that Ukraine killed its own civilians in a bid to generate more bad publicity for Russia and increase international support for the country’s defense.
Satellite photos appear to confirm Ukraine’s side of the story, while video of Bucha released by Ukraine’s military before the massacre was discovered – alongside a promise to “cleanse” Bucha of Russian collaborators and spies – has led skeptics to wonder if the Kremlin is telling the truth.
Since the Bucha massacre was first reported, the Ukrainians have themselves been accused of war crimes. Video that surfaced this week, and was later authenticated by the New York Times, shows Ukrainian soldiers appearing to execute Russian prisoners of war, including men with their hands bound behind them.
Human Rights Watch has condemned the brutality as a war crime.
