In his Facebook post, Yushchenko included an 1999 photo of him shaking hands with Orban.
“Viktor, look at this photo. We are standing side by side at a time when the future of our region seemed shared, clear, and bright,” Yushchenko wrote.
“Back then we believed that freedom was not just a word but the highest gift worth fighting for. I remember you differently. I remember a leader who understood the price of dignity and knew what it meant to be freed from imperial oppression.”
Yushchenko said Ukraine is fighting Russian occupiers not only to defend itself but to protect Europe — including Hungary.
“Today I look at your actions and ask myself: where did that Viktor go? How did the person who witnessed the birth of a free Hungary come to play into the hands of forces that want to destroy a neighbor’s freedom?” he wrote.
“Ukraine is bleeding today for the same values we once debated at the negotiating table. We are defending not only our land but the security of your country and all of Europe. Politics is not only numbers, profit, or gas. It is, above all, values. By choosing the side of the aggressor, you betray not only Ukraine — you betray the memory of your own people, who know what Soviet tanks in the streets of Budapest mean.”
Yushchenko urged Orban to “return to the light, to true
European fraternity, where honor is valued and not dubious political deals.”