Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is vowing to rid his country of foreign-funded groups, calling them a “shadow army” serving the European Union and a “liberal American empire.”

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban pledged on Saturday to crack down on politicians and journalists who receive foreign funding and again ruled out EU membership for Ukraine, stepping up his campaign for elections due in a year.

The right-wing populist prime minister has stepped up his attacks on critics, largely journalists and civil society organizations, since US President Donald Trump entered office.

The EU Friday agreed to drop three Russian individuals from its sanctions list as the price for Hungary's Viktor Orban to drop a threat to veto Europe's sanctions against Russia.

The European Union has reached a deal with Hungary to renew sanctions on more than 2,400 primarily Russian entities and individuals hours before they were set to expire on March 15, an EU official with knowledge of the negotiations told the Kyiv independent.

The EU has removed three Russian oligarchs from the latest sanctions list under pressure from Hungary, Vedomosti reported on March 14 citing Bloomberg. EU sources say the three unnamed Russian citizens were removed from the sanctions list and the EU has begun the so-called written procedure,