Ukrainian children’s folk dance group threatened by Hungarian border guards?

The Ukrainian press wrote about an incident that allegedly happened to a Ukrainian children’s folk dance group. The group was headed to Bosnia and Herzegovina to participate in an international competition. However, the Hungarian border guards did not welcome them so warmly.

As Index reported, the Ukrainian “Vitaminchiki” folk dance group wanted to cross the border at the Beregsurány–Astei border crossing. There wasn’t any issue at the Ukrainian checkpoint. However, things didn’t go that smoothly with the Hungarian border guards. According to the leader of the dance group, the Hungarian border guards were searching through all the bags and after finding a medical tourniquet in the aid package, the children were turned back to Ukraine.

Folk dance group threatened by gun

The leader of the folk-dance group, Oleh Melnyk, has posted on Facebook that he and the children got out of the vehicle. They have started singing the Ukrainian hymn while holding the Ukrainian flag. According to Oleh Melnyk, the Hungarian border guards ripped the mobile phone from his hand and put it on a barrel while demanding that they put down the Ukrainian flag. The leader of the group also added that he was asking for an interpreter, as none of the guards spoke English. He stressed that the children were heroes. Melnyk wrote the following in his Facebook post:

At the Hungarian border, they behaved aggressively with Ukrainian children, looking for reasons not to let them cross, trying to provoke them and then threatening them with automatic weapons. Although the children were frightened, they sang the Ukrainian anthem and did not respond to the call to put down the Ukrainian flag! They managed to defend their rights and moved on.

He later added that the incident at the border is a disgrace to those scoundrels who are playing along with Putin.

Following the incident

Oleh Melnyk has shared his story with the Ukrainian press and he also spoke in a radio broadcast. According to one of his Facebook posts, he tried to reach out to authorities but he has not received an answer yet. Many people have been following his updates on his social media, someone has even started a petition for protecting Ukrainians from such foul treatment in the future.