Context: During a speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, held January 19-23, 2026, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that "every Viktor" who lives at Europe's expense while selling out its interests "deserves a smack upside the head." He did not spell out whom he meant, but there is one person among European leaders with that name—Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is known for his good relations with Vladimir Putin and opposes providing military aid to Ukraine and its accession to the EU. In response, the Hungarian prime minister wrote on the X social network that over time "everyone will get what they deserve," but despite "insults" from the Ukrainian president, Hungary will continue to provide humanitarian and energy support to the people of Ukraine.
Commenting on the verbal sparring between Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Viktor Orban, political analyst Yury Vaskrasenski and host Ryhor Azaronak called the Ukrainian president a "pathetic loser," a "rat," a "scumbag," a "pest," and a "villain and a clown." Vaskrasenski also assessed Kyiv's dependence on Hungarian electricity supplies:
"Ryhor, just a moment, [Hungary] supplies 48% of all energy. So basically, half of Ukraine depends on this Victor. … Orban — despite all his pros and cons, he is a politician, not a scumbag like Zelenskyy. Because Orban could, if he were Zelenskyy, cut off supplies to Ukraine in response, which today accounted for 48% of all electricity consumed," the political analyst stated January 22 on the program “Azaronak. Directly.”
In the winter of 2025-2026, Hungary is indeed the largest supplier of electricity to Ukraine. In December, Budapest supplied Kyiv with about 41% of all electricity imports, and in January, that figure was 43%. Imports do not represent all electricity consumed, but only the portion that Ukraine purchases from abroad.
In mid-January 2026, Volodymyr Zelenskyy reported that following Russian attacks on Ukraine's power grid, the country independently meets about 60% of its electricity needs. According to him, power generation capacity stands at approximately 11 gigawatts, while the country needs about 18. More precise data for Ukraine remains classified due to the war.
If 18 gigawatts is taken as the approximate system demand during the peak winter period, and assuming such a load was continuous throughout December, then Ukraine would have consumed 13 million megawatt-hours of electricity. And in the first 19 days of January — about 8 million megawatt-hours.
In December, Hungary supplied Ukraine with approximately 260,000 megawatt-hours, or about 2% of the estimated total consumption for the month. In the first 19 days of January, it was about 200,000, or 2.5% of the total consumption during those days. But even if Ukraine actually consumed twice as little electricity during these months, Hungary's share of the total would have risen to only 4% and would not have reached even half.