Putin about Hungarian re-annexation of Ukraine’s Transcarpathia in Tucker Carlson-interview

Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a more than 2-hour-long interview to former US Fox News anchorman Tucker Carlson in Moscow. During the interview, he talked about whether he ever mentioned the Hungarian re-annexation of Ukraine’s Transcarpathia and his journey to the Western Ukrainian region, where almost 100 thousand Hungarians live.

Ukraine’s Transcarpathia: not the home of separatism!

Not many foreigners tend to know, but those Hungarians did not choose to move to Ukraine. The borders moved above their heads. Hungarians born in e.g. Beregszász (Berehove), a town with a Hungarian majority close to the Hungarian border, in 1910 lived their lives in five different countries despite never leaving the settlement. They were born as citizens of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1920, they became citizens of the newly formed Czechoslovakia. In 1938, they returned to the Hungarian Kingdom, and then, in 1944, they became the citizens of the Soviet Union. Finally, in 1991, they were granted Ukrainian citizenship in the newly-former Ukraine.

Of course, they wanted to preserve their language, culture, and traditions regardless of the country they lived in. Therefore, the Ukrainian nationalists regularly try to charge them with separatism, but such attacks lack any basis.

Since the armed conflict with Russia broke out in 2014, such allegations have come forth quite often. As a result, in 2018, for example, the central office of a Hungarian party in Ukraine was set ablaze.

Ukrainian politicians regularly claim that Hungary wants to take back Transcarpathia. That is why PM Orbán did not send weapons to Ukraine or block the country’s EU aid or EU accession before. They do not consider the fact that shortly after the first weapon delivery arrived in Transcarpathia, a Russian rocket destroyed a radio broadcaster there as a warning. And that was the only attack yet in Transcarpathia following the country’s 2022 Russian invasion.

Furthermore, they do not consider another matter. PM Orbán regularly tries to open up more room to manoeuvre in the European Union. Probably that is why he did not back Ukraine’s financial aid or EU accession for the first time last December. In return, Orbán wanted e.g. more money from the frozen EU RRF and development funds. He was unsuccessful. But such moves cannot be regarded as anti-Ukraine.

Putin offered Transcarpathia to Orbán?

Concerning Transcarpathia, the Hungarian government always expressed support towards Ukraine’s territorial integrity. And that is what Putin confirmed in his interview with Tucker Carlson.

Carlson’s question was quite unequivocal: “Have you told Viktor Orbán that he can have part of Ukraine?” “Never, I have never told him. Not a single time. We have not even had any conversations on that. But I actually know for sure that Hungarians who live there wanted to get back their historical lands”.

Putin also shared details about a trip to Transcarpathia’s Beregszász (Berehove).

“Somewhere in the early eighties, I went on a roadtrip in a car, from then Leningrad across the Soviet Union through Kyiv. We stopped in Kyiv, and then we went to Western Ukraine. I went to the town of Berehove (Beregszász in Hungarian, ed. note). All the names of towns and villages were in Russian and a language I did not understand: in Hungarian. In Russian and in Hungarian. Not in Ukrainian – in Russian and in Hungarian. I was driving through a village and men were sitting next to the houses. They were wearing black three-piece suits and black hats. I asked, are they some kind of entertainers? I was told no, they were not entertainers, they were Hungarians. I said, what are they doing here? What do you mean? This is their land, they live here. This was during the Soviet times during the 1980s. They preserved the Hungarian language, the Hungarian names, and all their national costumes. They are Hungarians and they feel like Hungarians“, the Russian president highlighted.

Putin wanted to continue with the infringement of the Hungarians’ language use rights, but Carlson interrupted. The two started to talk about other redrawn borders of the 20th century and dropped the problem of Transcarpathia and local Hungarians.

However, Putin’s reply on the matter was clear. They have never talked with the Hungarian prime minister about a re-annexation of the territory where fewer and fewer Hungarians live due to the war, poverty and Ukrainian ultra-nationalism.

Read also:

• Meeting of Hungarian and Ukrainian foreign ministers held, with the Hungarian side asking for 11-point changes – Read more HERE
• Terrorist attack in Ukrainian region populated by Hungarians – check out the 18+ VIDEO and more in THIS article

Here is the full interview: