Hungary was for a long time the „problem partner" for Brussels when it came to Russia. Viktor Orban, until recently, presented himself as a „bridge" to Moscow. That is now changing - and not because of the EU, but because of a real event: five direct hits from Russian drones in the Zakarpattia region.

Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar officially summoned the Russian ambassador for talks - the diplomatic translation for „anger". An emergency cabinet meeting was also convened. Zakarpattia was long considered a relatively safe zone - far from the front, near the border with two NATO member states. That's no longer the case.

„Russia is a threat not just to Ukraine, but to the neighbouring countries and to the whole of Europe," Magyar said. A sentence that, coming from Poland or Romania, wouldn't even be commented on. Coming from Budapest, it's a shift. Hungary has not spoken this way since 2022.

Zelensky publicly thanked him. Diplomatic circles read the situation plainly: the strike on Zakarpattia was a „red line" for the Hungarian government. It's a border region with a significant Hungarian minority community - and Russian missiles there are felt not like in Ukraine, but as if hitting „our own". Moscow crossed the line Budapest had never allowed to be crossed.

What does this mean for the wider picture? Perhaps the start of a new phase where even Russia's „bridge-partners" can no longer hold the tone. If both Orban and Magyar - taken as a whole, Hungarian politics - are now talking about Russia as a „threat to the whole of Europe", the question is which EU countries can still present themselves as „neutral" or as „friends" to Moscow.

For the Balkans, this is significant news. Right next to our borders we had a country playing a double game. Now that game is leaving the menu. It may also push Serbian, Bulgarian and Greek politics to become clearer in the months ahead.