Prime Minister of Poland Donald Tusk criticized Hungary’s leader Viktor Orbán this week for telling Russian leader Vladimir Putin “I am at your service” during a phone call in October.
[NOTE: According to the transcript of the October conversation, which was released by Bloomberg, Orbán said to Putin: “In any matter where I can help, I am at your disposal.”]
As U.S. Vice President JD Vance arrived in Budapest Tuesday and encouraged Hungarians to vote for the incumbent Orbán (“I love Viktor, I’m telling you he’s a fantastic man”), Tusk wrote on social media: “Orbán declared to Putin that he is at his service in every matter.”
Tusk tagged Poland’s President Karol Nawrocki and Member of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland Jarosław Kaczyński, and asked, “Do you also support Orbán in this?”
Orbán replied, “Dear @donaldtusk, It’s true. I spoke with President Putin about ending the war and organising a USA-Russia peace summit in Budapest. What have you done for peace?”
Dear @donaldtusk,
It’s true. I spoke with President Putin about ending the war and organising a USA-Russia peace summit in Budapest.What have you done for peace? https://t.co/77FwA6QpUi
— Orbán Viktor (@PM_ViktorOrban) April 7, 2026
Former Member of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland Robert Winnicki jumped into the conversation and replied to Orbán: “Why don’t you ask your closest friends and partners in the world, Trump, Netanyahu and Putin, what they have done for peace in recent years? That would be the most interesting, because it is not Poland that attacks other countries, but the leaders with whom you work most closely.”
The New York Times reported on Tuesday: “Both the Trump administration and Moscow see Mr. Orban as a linchpin of their common antagonism toward Europe,” and are hoping Orbán, who “has put hostility toward Ukraine at the center of his campaign for re-election,” wins.