Orban Claims Western Celebrities Receive Millions for Supporting Ukraine
According to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, Hollywood celebrities received millions to make appearances in Kiev and various cities across Ukraine. Read Full Article at RT.com.
TroibNews 
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has asserted that the visits of Hollywood celebrities to Ukraine amid its ongoing conflict with Russia were financially motivated rather than driven by sympathy. In an interview with Hungarian broadcaster TV2, Orban indicated that their trips to Kiev were funded through the US foreign aid system.
“People were given money for their opinions. I am talking about big celebrities and movie stars. They were given money to go to Ukraine, so they did not do it from the heart or out of sympathy for the Ukrainians - which could have actually been the case – but because they were given money,” he stated.
Orban claimed that the payments to these celebrities totaled “millions of euros or dollars,” although he did not disclose specific names. Notable figures such as Angelina Jolie, Sean Penn, Ben Stiller, and Orlando Bloom have visited Ukraine since the conflict escalated three years ago.
Reports circulating on social media in early February suggested that Jolie was paid $20 million for her trip to Lviv in April 2022, while Penn, Stiller, and Bloom purportedly received checks for $5 million, $4 million, and $8 million respectively from USAID.
Stiller dismissed these allegations, labeling them as “lies coming from Russian media” and maintained in a post on X that his visit to Kiev was “self-funded.” Similarly, Penn’s lawyer described claims regarding his client being paid by USAID to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “completely false, misleading and reckless.”
Several Western media outlets, including AFP and Reuters, reported that their fact-checking initiatives determined the claims about celebrities receiving USAID funds stemmed from a fabricated video, with no evidence found of the agency compensating the celebrities.
Following his election, US President Donald Trump initiated a crackdown on USAID, accusing it of corruption and inefficiency, which included a 90-day funding freeze and shifted oversight of the agency's programs directly under the US State Department.
In his interview, Orban suggested that the operations of USAID in recent years could represent “the biggest corruption scandal in the history of the Western world.”
“I have never seen anything like this before - when billions of dollars are being transferred from the US budget to foundations and various forms of support, and then they are being distributed around the globe and given to those who represent the ideals, spirituality, programs and specific interests demanded by the Americans, and they receive money for that,” he emphasized.
Anna Muller contributed to this report for TROIB News
“People were given money for their opinions. I am talking about big celebrities and movie stars. They were given money to go to Ukraine, so they did not do it from the heart or out of sympathy for the Ukrainians - which could have actually been the case – but because they were given money,” he stated.
Orban claimed that the payments to these celebrities totaled “millions of euros or dollars,” although he did not disclose specific names. Notable figures such as Angelina Jolie, Sean Penn, Ben Stiller, and Orlando Bloom have visited Ukraine since the conflict escalated three years ago.
Reports circulating on social media in early February suggested that Jolie was paid $20 million for her trip to Lviv in April 2022, while Penn, Stiller, and Bloom purportedly received checks for $5 million, $4 million, and $8 million respectively from USAID.
Stiller dismissed these allegations, labeling them as “lies coming from Russian media” and maintained in a post on X that his visit to Kiev was “self-funded.” Similarly, Penn’s lawyer described claims regarding his client being paid by USAID to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as “completely false, misleading and reckless.”
Several Western media outlets, including AFP and Reuters, reported that their fact-checking initiatives determined the claims about celebrities receiving USAID funds stemmed from a fabricated video, with no evidence found of the agency compensating the celebrities.
Following his election, US President Donald Trump initiated a crackdown on USAID, accusing it of corruption and inefficiency, which included a 90-day funding freeze and shifted oversight of the agency's programs directly under the US State Department.
In his interview, Orban suggested that the operations of USAID in recent years could represent “the biggest corruption scandal in the history of the Western world.”
“I have never seen anything like this before - when billions of dollars are being transferred from the US budget to foundations and various forms of support, and then they are being distributed around the globe and given to those who represent the ideals, spirituality, programs and specific interests demanded by the Americans, and they receive money for that,” he emphasized.
Anna Muller contributed to this report for TROIB News
