Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has accused Ukrainians of plotting to attack his family, but security analysts say the footage showing a former Ukrainian military person is likely manipulated and part of a broader disinformation campaign ahead of Hungary’s 2026 parliamentary elections.

Orban posted Facebook videos showing him calling members of his family to tell them that Ukrainians had allegedly threatened them and that the threat should be taken seriously, but that they should not be afraid. He then turned to the camera, saying the family was safe and that, in his view, they had not been frightened, although such incidents are unusual in their lives.

The post came after pro-government outlet Index.hu began circulating a video recording of a former officer of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), Hryhoriy Omelchenko, in an interview issuing a warning to the Hungarian leader.

The video originally appeared on the YouTube channel Prjamij TV and was widely shared by Russian media outlets such as Lenta and Moskovsky Komsomolets, and was picked up by pro-Orban outlets and influencers.

"We know where he lives, where he spends the night, where he drinks beer and wine, where he goes, whom he meets, and so on. Therefore, if Orban does not change his anti-Ukrainian stance and continues to be an accomplice to Putin’s war crimes, he should remember that karma never forgives anyone’s sins. One cannot escape, hide from, or buy off karma with billions. Viktor Orban should think about his five children and six grandchildren," the 75-year-old ex-military man said.

Omelchenko is a fringe figure in Ukrainian politics. He has not been a member of parliament since 2012. He previously served in the Ukrainian parliament as a member of former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko’s party, and he was previously affiliated with the party of former Ukrainian president Viktor Yushchenko, which no longer has parliamentary representation.

Cybersecurity expert Ferenc Fresz said his analysis suggests the footage was edited and altered with AI-tools. As he pointed out in a Facebook post, the audio track appears to have been generated with a deep-voice generator and overlaid onto existing footage of Omelchenko, while the lip-sync was poorly executed. The image quality may have been intentionally reduced to make editing traces less noticeable.

The episode comes amid growing concerns about foreign interference in Hungary’s upcoming election. Investigative journalist Szabolcs Panyi of VSquare and Direkt36 recently cited multiple European security sources as saying the Kremlin had tasked a team of political strategists with supporting Orban’s ruling Fidesz party ahead of the vote through disinformation, troll networks and other operations.

The Financial Times, probably relying on the same intel sources as Panyi, gave more details of the covert Russian operations. It said that the Social Design Agency, a Kremlin-linked media consultancy, was preparing a mass disinformation campaign in Hungary.

The strategy calls for Russia-designed messages to be posted by Hungarian social media influencers. The move was intended to blend the content with local posts and portray Orbán as the only leader able to defend Hungary’s sovereignty and international standing. 

The plan also proposes "information attacks" against opposition leader Peter Magyar, who leads by double digits in independent polls. The business daily said the campaign aims to portray the head of the Tisza Party as under Brussels' control and unable to secure meaningful foreign support. 

The Russian embassy in Budapest has denied the allegations. Analysts note that Moscow has been accused in recent years of attempting to influence elections in other countries, including Moldova and Georgia.

Since Facebook banned direct political advertising in October, Fidesz has increasingly relied on a large network of online influencers and affiliated pages to spread campaign messages and attacks on political opponents.

The strategy allows Fidesz to circulate political content while bypassing the platform’s advertising restrictions ahead of the elections. Analysts expect a proliferation of these posts, with increasingly precise targeting of specific voter groups, over the next 30 days of the campaign.