A video circulating on Hungary's pro-government media platforms is part of a campaign launched by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban against Ukraine's EU accession. The video uses alarming imagery and menacing narration to portray Ukraine as a hub of drug and arms trafficking, controlled by a merciless mafia, and alleges that Brussels is endangering Hungary by considering Ukraine's membership.

The campaign asserts that if Ukraine joins the EU, the Ukrainian mafia will freely enter Hungary, leading to the collapse of public security and the health system. It depicts Ukraine as a center of organized crime and portrays Ukrainians as barbaric individuals poised to flood Hungary with cheap labor and claim pensions. The campaign also accuses Brussels of manipulating the situation.

The campaign's roots lie in Hungarian domestic politics. Orban's popularity is declining due to corruption and disregard for the rule of law. Opposition leader Peter Magyar's rising popularity poses a threat to Orban's power. The anti-Ukraine campaign is an attempt to discredit Magyar, especially after a survey indicated that 58% of Hungarians support Ukraine's EU membership.

In response, Orban's government has accused Brussels of financing Ukraine and alleges that both Brussels and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy have bought the Tisza party to overthrow the Hungarian government and replace it with a pro-Ukrainian, anti-national war party.

Orban's anti-Ukrainian stance also caters to nostalgic revisionist sentiments among far-right voters who desire Transcarpathia, a region bordering Central and Eastern Europe, to be part of Hungary. Orban's rhetoric hints at a potential fragmentation of Ukrainian territory.

Orban's stance aligns with Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump. Maintaining good relations with Putin is crucial for Orban due to Hungary's economic and financial ties with Russia.

While Orban accuses Ukraine of being a corrupt mafia state, his government has protected Russian oligarchs linked to organized crime and included on EU sanctions lists. Experts from organizations such as the Organization for Economic Cooperation in Europe suggest that Ukraine's rule of law is more established than in Hungary, and that Ukraine is actively fighting corruption even during the war, a stark contrast to the situation in Hungary.