Ukraine responds to Budapest sanctions with travel bans on Hungarian military officials

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha has announced that Ukraine has banned entry to three senior officials of the Hungarian armed forces in response to Budapest’s decision to impose sanctions on Ukrainian military personnel.

Sybiha said that this is a reciprocal measure in response to Hungary’s ban on entry for several Ukrainian military officials, which Sybiha described as "baseless".

"We’ve imposed an entry ban on three high-ranking Hungarian military officials," Sybiha wrote on X.

Ukraine maintains its dignity and will not ignore disrespect from Hungary, the foreign minister noted.

At the end of August, Hungary barred entry to Robert Brovdi, the Ukrainian commander of the Unmanned Systems Forces and an ethnic Hungarian, over attacks on the Druzhba oil pipeline. 

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy instructed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to "confirm this information and respond accordingly".

Additionally, in July, Hungary banned three Ukrainian military personnel from entering its territory over the alleged violent death of a Hungarian citizen linked to the actions of the Joint Coordination Centre in Zakarpattia Oblast.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry stated that Hungary’s attempts to manipulatively use individual mobilisation cases for political purposes harm Ukrainian-Hungarian relations.