“Usually people who need help ask politely. They are persistent, but they don’t ask, demand, or threaten. One usually threatens his enemy, not one who wants to be friends,” said the Speaker of the Hungarian Parliament, László Kövér, in a speech to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“There are personal psychological problems,” Kövér added of Zelensky. The world is said to have watched his behavior with “astonishment and incomprehension”.

Kövér, known for his large, neat moustache, is a member of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz government party and has been head of parliament for 12 years. The politician also said he had no recollection of anyone making similar comments about Hungary or former German Chancellor Angela Merkel as Zelenskyi.

In his call, Zelenskyy called on Western countries to supply weapons against Russia and also called for the toughest possible sanctions against the Putin regime.

Kövér’s words about Zelensky are heard in conversation for Hír TV, which is loyal to the Orbán government. The politician gave an interview on the 102nd anniversary of the signing of the Trianon Peace Treaty, which marked the disintegration of Greater Hungary and is still a major historical trauma for Hungarian nationalist politicians.

In that context, Kövér was asked whether Ukraine could “take revenge” on the Hungarian minority in Ukraine’s Transcarpathian region. According to the politician, Hungarians in Transcarpathia may have “problems” after the war, and therefore the Hungarian government should be careful. “Otherwise, it could happen that Hungary will have to leave Ukraine after 1,100 years,” he added.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has responded to Kövér’s remarks about Zelensky. “The ministry is awaiting confirmation of the mental health of the Speaker of the Hungarian Parliament, László Kövér,” wrote Ukrainian diplomatic spokesman Oleg Nikolenko. It is said that Kyiv will judge Kövér’s next words solely on the results.

Andriy Sybiha, deputy head of the Ukrainian presidential office, also attacked Kövér on the network, indirectly calling Kövér a donkey and a fool. “People are always wise and know how to respond to completely unacceptable and rude remarks from ‘non-politicians’ like the Speaker of the Hungarian Parliament who are disrespected,” he wrote Sybiha is on Facebook.

He also added some sayings: “Long tongue, short mind,” or “You know an ass by its ears and a fool by its nonsense.”

Sybiha went on to write that she wanted to hear Kövér’s opinion on the massacre in the village of Korjukivka in northern Ukraine, in which 6,700 people died in 1943. Residents were shot and burned by the Nazis with the participation of a Hungarian collaborative unit.

This is not the first diplomatic firefight between Kiev and Budapest since the start of the Russian invasion. Within the EU, Hungary has taken a reclusive stance in support of Ukraine and refuses to supply arms to its neighbors and opposes an embargo on Russian oil imports to the EU.

Under the new EU sanctions package, the transport of oil via the Druzhba pipeline that supplies the Czechs, Slovakia and Hungary is temporarily exempt from the embargo.

A “state of danger” prevails in Hungary because of the war in Ukraine. Viktor Orbán’s government could use the decree to overturn existing laws and issue emergency measures. Changes must be approved from time to time by parliament, where Fidesz has a constitutional majority.

The war in Ukraine also affected the campaign ahead of parliamentary elections in Hungary in early April. Orbán bets on the rhetoric that the conflict does not concern Hungary, which relies on Russian raw materials, and that the government “sides with Hungary and looks at the situation with Hungary’s head and from the Hungarian point of view.”

In his post-election victory speech, Viktor Orbán said he fought against Brussels, the domestic and international left, George Soros, the international press, as well as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Right after the election victory, Orbán continues to be caught up in his personal feud with Zelensky, moreover, on a day when the world was shocked by footage of the consequences of the Russian assassination in Bucha near Kyiv.

Zelenskyy had texted him a moment earlier to decide which side he was on. “Viktor, do you know what happened in Mariupol? You have to walk along the shores of the Danube in Budapest, there is a memorial to the murdered Jews, I was there with my family. The murder he was commemorating now happened again, only slightly differently. I think you have to decide which side you stand on,” the Ukrainian president said.