The anti-Ukrainian run in Hungary has just ended for respective months. It was directed against Ukraine's accession to the EU. The Hungarian autocratic Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his camera portrayed his neighbour's country as a mob state, full of hordes of criminals, dangerous to the society who rob, kidnap and kill Hungarians.
Gross propaganda
Those who thought Orban’s propaganda had thus reached the bottom must be disappointed. On 6 July 2025, a recruit of Hungarian origin died in Ukraine. The authorities in Budapest present his death as an attack on the Hungarian people and talk of Ukraine as an empire of evil, even though the circumstances of the death of a man are unclear.
Orban declared, "A Hungarian citizen was beaten to death in Ukraine". Without any evidence, he accuses Ukraine and the EU of covering up an alleged crime. On Facebook, he writes on a black background, "The fact cannot be silenced."
Media akin to the Hungarian government published hundreds of emotional entries on the death of a recruit. Ukraine's Ambassador to Budapest Sandor Fegyir was called upon to speak, which in diplomacy means the highest degree of outrage by the government. Hundreds of people demonstrated before the Ukrainian embassy in Budapest under the leadership of the main propagandaist Orban, Zsolt Bayer.
"He learned of the circumstances of death"
Hungarian president Tamas Sulyok sent a letter to the parents of the deceased recruit, in which he wrote that he was completely appalled by what he heard about the circumstances of their son's death: "This should not happen in Europe, it is contrary to all human values," he wrote.
What precisely happened? It's a 45-year-old man named Jozsef Sebestyen from the city of Berehowo in the Ukrainian Zakarpackie region, where nearly 100,000 cultural Hungarians live. Berehovo, with a population of 23,000, of which about half are cultural Hungarians, lies respective kilometres from the Hungarian border. Sebestyen ran a boarding home there. Like many Hungarians in the Zakarpackie region, he had Ukrainian and Hungarian citizenship.
Like most Ukrainian citizens of draft age, after the start of the war in February 2022 he was registered with the Ukrainian military administration (TCK). In mid-June, in Berehów, he was detained during a roadside inspection carried out by TCK staff, mobilized, recognized as capable of military service and sent for basic training. On July 6, 2025, Sebestyen died in a psychiatric infirmary in Berehów. This is certain; about everything else relationships are divergent and unconfirmed.
Videos of obscure origin
On the evening of July 9, 2025, the Hungarian portal Mandiner published a study that claims that Jozsef Sebestyen was so severely beaten by iron rods that he later died. This study cites a post posted on Sebestyen's Facebook sister, Marty, who nevertheless does not be or has been removed.
Marta Sebestyen did not respond to the DW's request in this case. On the another hand, the editorial board of the Mandiner portal responded to the DW's enquiry with an article in which it states that it will "not let to downplay" the case.
Later, Mandiner portal besides published films to show Jozsef Sebestyen after beating. 1 of them shows him kneeling on the grass, and paramedics and military uniforms ask him questions. No harm can be seen, after a while Sebestyen falls on the grass. In 2 another films, he crawls on all fours on the grounds, which may be a training camp. He looks confused and exhausted. However, there are no signs of force against him anywhere.
It's not clear who made those movies. However, these are already circulating in thousands of copies in Hungary and are repeatedly shown in media akin to the government, for example in the news program of the public tv station MTVA, as evidence of cruelty in the Ukrainian army.
Army denies abuse
In its reports, the Hungarian MTVA Information Programme Hirado besides shows a movie depicting a man in the hospital, possibly in the ICU. The movie was signed to show Sebestyen "in the infirmary just before his death" on July 6, 2025.
However, DW managed to delegate this movie to the Ukrainian channel on the Telegram platform, on which it was published on 22 May 2025. According to the channel administrator, Vitali Glagoli, the movie depicts another man. Glagola told DW that the movie is abused by Hungarian media. Viktor Orban besides uses this movie on his TikTok account and on social media.
Hirado besides abuses another Glagola channel movie of May 22, 2025. The MTVA broadcaster has not yet responded to a written request from the DW in this case. Neither did the Hungarian Communications Authority answer the DW questions.
In a communication of 10 July 2025, the command of Ukrainian land forces contradicts all allegations of abuse of Sebestyen. It was transported on 15 June 2025 to a training unit, from which 3 days later he deserted. On June 24, 2025, he reported with ailments to the region infirmary in Berehov, from where he was transferred to a intellectual infirmary where he died on July 6, 2025 due to pulmonary embolism, "without any signs of injury indicating violence".
"Trauma Trianon" as an crucial topic
The Ukrainian MFA accuses Hungary of utilizing the Sebestyen case "in a manipulative and political manner". Viktor Orban not only claims that "in Ukraine, Hungary was beaten to death", but adds that "this country cannot become an EU member". It is so about continuing the run against Ukraine's membership in the EU. Despite intense propaganda, the run was alternatively average in success.
However, the Sebestyen case is of a different nature. For many Hungarians, the affairs of their countrymen surviving in neighboring countries play a very crucial emotional role. The Orban government has again made the "Trauma Trianon", treated for decades as a taboo theme, an crucial subject, which meets with a wide resounding. The point is that after planet War I Hungary lost 2 thirds of its territory and population under the Treaty of Trianon.
Today, about 2 million cultural Hungarians live in countries neighbouring Hungary. Although many Hungarians respond to Sebestyen’s case with agitation, it will only be revealed that this run will be able to halt the widespread fatigue of Orban in Hungary.
