Putin and Orban discuss Hungarian POWs captured fighting for Ukraine

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Tuesday (March 3, 2026) discussed the issue of Hungarians captured while fighting for Kyiv, the Kremlin said.

Ukraine is home to a large Hungarian minority, mostly living in the western Zakarpattia region.

Mr. Orban is one of the few European leaders to maintain close ties with Russia amid the war in Ukraine and has publicly criticised Kyiv for drafting ethnic Hungarians into its army.

“Vladimir Putin held a telephone conversation with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban,” the Kremlin said in a statement.

“Issues concerning Hungarian citizens mobilised into the Ukrainian armed forces and taken prisoner by Russia were also touched on,” it added.

The Russian Defence Ministry published a video last week purporting to show a dual Hungarian-Ukrainian citizen captured as a prisoner of war, alleging he had been forced to enlist in the Ukrainian army.

Last July, Hungary summoned Ukraine’s envoy over allegations an ethnic Hungarian man died weeks after military recruiters allegedly assaulted him in Ukraine.

Kyiv says the man was legally mobilised and denied he was beaten.

Mr. Orban and Mr. Putin’s call also comes amid a standoff between Budapest and Kyiv over supplies of Russian oil to Hungary through Ukraine.

Ukraine says the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline that delivered large amounts of Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia was damaged in Russian air strikes on January 27.

Slovakia and Hungary, Moscow’s closest partners in the European Union, have accused Kyiv of deliberately stalling the pipeline’s reopening to put pressure on them. Kyiv rejects this allegation.

The Kremlin said Mr. Orban and Mr. Putin also discussed the war in the Middle East, in particular its implications for the global energy market.