Transcarpathia

Ukraine has removed individual and community rights, says Hungarian minister

gergely gulyás Forum of Hungarian Lawmakers from the Carpathian Basin

Despite all the debates about European values, there is general consensus that the rights of ethnic minorities are among the values of Europe, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office told a plenary session of the Forum of Hungarian Deputies in the Carpathian Basin (KMKF) in Budapest on Friday.

Gergely Gulyás, referring to the Hungarian minority in Ukraine, said the Hungarian government was loyal to Ukraine, a country which had been attacked, but added that “it is inconcievable that Ukraine, neglecting European values and trampling on the community and individual rights should become an European Union member”.

“We expect Ukraine to restore the individual and community rights that it has removed since 2015,” Gulyás said. He added that a lack of those rights made Hungarian education in Transcarpathia “extremely difficult”.

The Hungarian government urges “the earliest ceasefire and peace” in Ukraine, a position that “not only serves our interests but will save Ukrainian and Hungarian lives”, he added.

He said the Hungarian government condemned Russia’s aggression, and would accommodate refugees from Ukraine without limitations, as well as provide humanitarian aid in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Gulyás said the Hungarian government had provided assistance to the operation of some 5,000 Hungarian institutions and organisations in the Carpathian Basin and in the Hungarian diaspora since 2010. Hungary supports the full range of Hungarian education to an annual 300,000 children. Each ethnic Hungarian child and student receives an education subsidy of a yearly HUF 100,000 (EUR 265.64), he added.

Gulyás called the Kőrösi Csoma and Mikes Kelemen programmes as success stories, and also mentioned that the Hungarian government provided financing to the renovation of 1,600 churches and church-run institutions and to 100 sports projects.

The Hungarian government’s economic development programme has helped over 60,000 ethnic Hungarian entrepreneurs with over HUF 200 billion (EUR 0.53 billion, the minister added.

House Speaker: The entire nation is behind Transcarpathian Hungarians

transcarpathia soldiers ukraine

Ukrainian politicians must know that the entire Hungarian nation is behind the Transcarpathian Hungarian community, and the Hungarian state will not give up protecting their interests despite any pressure, Speaker of Parliament László Kövér said in Budapest on Friday.

In his opening address to the Forum of Hungarian Lawmakers from the Carpathian Basin (KMKF), Kövér said there was no separate cause for Hungarians living beyond the borders and those within, only a unified Hungarian nation and a unified Hungarian cause, MTI reported.

Kövér emphasised that the matter of the Transcarpathian Hungarians was not merely a minority issue, but an existential issue in the strictest sense of the word, just as that of the native minority communities, which make up more than a tenth of the European population, was not only a moral issue, but one of realpolitik. What is happening today to European national minorities can happen tomorrow to the majority nations as well, Kövér said.

He also pointed out that after the conclusion of the war in Ukraine, it would not be possible to rebuild the European security policy architecture without a fair settlement of the issue of national rights. In the absence of this, any new European security concept is only built on sand, he said.

Kövér argued that the war in Ukraine did not begin with the first Russian gunshot in February last year, but when leading Russian politicians questioned the independence of the Ukrainian nation, the existence of an independent Ukrainian language and culture, openly expressing the idea that what claims to be Ukraine must be Russified. At the same time, the speaker posed the question of what happens if the victim also questions the ethnic reality of others and tries to restrict and eliminate it.

He said the Ukrainian state had been acting restrictively towards its ethnic minorities since 2015, long before the war began. It started disputing their rights to their identity, their mother tongue and culture, and effectively started to try to Ukrainise them.

What is happening in Ukraine today, Kövér said, proved that the policy of ethnic dominance does not make a state stronger or more stable, but rather more vulnerable.

The position of Hungary’s policy for national communities is that ensuring a European-level, principled and democratic solution to the national problems in Europe — especially for the integration process of the Balkan states — is not only a measure of taking human rights seriously but also a vital security policy interest, Kövér said. Violations against national identity sooner or later result in political destabilisation, while the principled and legal protection of national identity strengthens political stability and security, he emphasised.

Orbán: Part of Ukraine is ancient Hungarian land

Viktor Orbán CPAC United we stand

That is the segment of PM Viktor Orbán’s interview with public broadcaster Kossuth Rádió, which was cut out from the final version.

444.hu wrote that the prime minister said Ukrainian losses are Hungarian losses, too. Orbán added that it is a Hungarian interest to make Ukraine successful since there are Hungarians living and part of the country is ancient Hungarian land belonging currently to Ukraine. Hungarians are indigenous there, Orbán said. That segment, however, was cut out from the interview uploaded on YouTube. Orbán said we want peace because Hungarians in Ukraine are suffering from the ongoing war. The prime minister meant Transcarpathia, Ukraine’s Westernmost territory, where more than 100 thousand Hungarians live.

CPAC – Minister Gulyás: Hungary site of ‘successful conservative experiment’

Hungary has seen a “successful conservative experiment” in the past years, Gergely Gulyás, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office, said in his closing speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Friday. The “experiment’s” success lies in its democratic legitimacy, which was secured in four parliamentary elections won by large margins, Gulyás said. But it is also successful because it has “retained the fundamental values that western parties calling themselves Christian Democrats and conservative have already abandoned,” he said.

CPAC, which was organised by Hungary’s Centre for Fundamental Rights (Alapjogokért Központ) for the second time, is an important forum of American conservatives “connecting the two shores of the ocean,” Gulyás said. On behalf of the Hungarian government, Gulyás thanked the speakers of the event for visiting Hungary “which punches above its weight in the conservative debates”. Conservatives in western Europe often accept the “rules and frameworks which leftists and liberals have set to them.” In the US, however, “conservatives have remained conservative, and protect the fundamental values under attack from wokeism.”

That attack “does not happen pro bono”, as proven by the fact that the Hungarian opposition had received 4 billion forints in US dollars to rise to power, he said. That funding served the purpose of “making sure that Hungary is not a country governed by a conservative, Christian democratic force that seems to be a thorn in the current US administration’s side,” he said. “Wokeism questions the concept of homeland, targets freedom and peoples’ right to decide about their own fate, and to define their own values and the frameworks of its life,” he said.

Gulyás said that the slogan “no woke zone” at the conference entrance was a call for action, and aims to achieve the rise of political forces to power that will declare that their countries “would not become a woke zone”. “Forces that see men as men, women as women, and want to protect our fundamental values: nation, faith and cohesion,” he said.

Transcarpathian refugees harassed underage girl in a town near Budapest – draconic consequences

Transcarpathian refugees Hungary

The mayor of Kerepes, a small town 22 kilometres away from Budapest, became fed up with those Transcarpathian refugees who regularly harass young local Hungarian girls.

László Gyuricza highlighted in a video that he would introduce zero tolerance against such acts. The men living in a workers’ hostel followed young girls, who desperately tried to flee and burst into tears. One of them was only 16, while the other was 22, index.hu wrote.

You can go and be tough with the Chechens

Mr Gyuricza talked with the girls’ parents and visited the problematic families, telling them he would no longer tolerate such an attitude. ‘I am not willing to accept the harassment of girls living in Kerepes. What do you think you are doing? You can go and be tough with the Chechens. You should have appreciated that we accepted you here. Are you not ashamed of yourself?”, the mayor yelled to them.

He asked police officers to act strongly and demonstratively in the town. The aim is to increase the subjective sense of security of the locals. He knew he would become a target of human rights advocates. But he must protect his family and the community entrusted him to lead.

The mayor highlighted that the refugees needed to leave the town until 1 May. Since Mr Gyuricza talked in Hungarian and there was no interpretation, we assume that the listeners were all Hungarian-speaking Roma, who came from Transcarpathia and sought refuge in the town close to Budapest.

Here is the video:

President demands that the rights of the Hungarian minority to be respected in Ukraine

Hungary President Hungarian minority

The world is more and more aware of the voice of “women crying for peace”, Hungarian President Katalin Novák said in an interview to a regional newspaper.

“We feel what it means when our sons and husbands are sent to war. I’m working for generations not to have to experience the horrors of war,” the president said in the interview published in the Saturday issue of Kelet-Magyarország. She said both sides in the war in Ukraine and those who support them harboured false hopes, and their goals could not be achieved. Since the start of the war, 1.5 million refugees have entered Hungary, she noted, adding that the people of Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg, where she was paying a visit, were on the front line of Hungarians helping incomers.

The president said Hungary was showing “its best face”. Referring to the community of 150,000 Hungarians living in Transcarpathia, she said many of them were “mourning their sons, husbands and fathers”. “Families have been torn apart,” she said. Novák said that many heads of state were unaware that a Hungarian national community lives in Ukraine, adding that its members were law-abiding Ukrainian citizens who worked and contributed to the Ukrainian economy, with many of them fighting in the war, too. Meanwhile, they are “clinging” on to their mother tongue, traditions, culture and identity, she said.

“We are helping to care for them”

“We are helping to care for them,” she said. Regarding her recent visit to Kyiv, she said one of the aims of her visit had been to strengthen the Transcarpathian Hungarian community. By accepting the Ukrainian president’s invitation, she could assure him in person that “they can count on us”. Hungary, she said, had supported Ukraine’s territorial integrity and sovereignty from the very beginning and condemned Russian aggression, while also “going above and beyond to help refugees”.

Independently of the circumstances of the war, Hungary demands that the rights of the Hungarian minority are respected, Novák said, adding that “this area, unfortunately, isn’t going well right now”. Meanwhile, on the topic of family benefits, the president said that protecting and helping families meant so much more than providing family benefits. She said the “determinant environment” was the family, and family was the source of “the most help and strength, wherever life takes us. That’s why I encourage young people to take on the responsibility of family when they’re ready.”

Hungarian family-friendly policies have brought “results not seen elsewhere in the Western world in the past decade,” she said, noting that the number of marriages has doubled, the desire to have children has grown, and the number of divorces and abortions has fallen.

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Ukrainians afraid of Hungary’s expansion in Transcarpathia

Hungarian expansion Transcarpathia

Ukrainska Pravda made a report from Transcarpathia’s Beregszász region, where there is a strong Hungarian community, they wrote. They asked locals whether there was a conflict between Hungarians and Ukrainians.

Hungarian expansion in Transcarpathia

In Csonkapapi, locals said the village had 800 inhabitants before the Russian invasion. Not is has less than 300. Only poor people and those who lacked help in Hungary or other Western countries remained. That means not only Ukrainians but also Hungarians leave the area.

According to index.hu, a Hungarian woman told Pravda she regularly follows the Hungarian press because the Ukrainian was telling lies. She criticised the Ukrainian government for slamming the Orbán cabinet since they do not send arms to Kyiv. She believes that it goes well for the Hungarians, they live in peace. Why should they send weapons? Pravda compares the Hungarian government’s struggle for the Hungarian ethnic minority in Transcarpathia with similar Russian efforts in East Ukraine. The only difference is that Budapest has not started a war yet, they conclude.

Vitaly Antipov, a member of the city council of Beregszász, said the Hungarian media transmits the Russian narrative. Furthermore, they provide a pretext for the Orbán government to block Ukraine’s initiatives in the EU and NATO.

Hungarian mayor says they only want to use their mother tongue in Transcarpathia

One of their latest suggestions was to give USD 815 (a lot of money in Ukraine) to parents sending their children to Ukrainian language elementary schools. That is how he believes young people could learn the language of their fatherland. The initiative provoked outrage among the ethnic minorities, but Mr Antipov highlighted that the Hungarian government has been doing the same in the last few years. He said Hungary gives almost USD 300 (HUF 100,000) for the same reason to the Hungarian parents. Furthermore, Hungary supports Hungarian teachers. As a result, many gain a degree but cannot speak Ukrainian. “We respect each other. But our region should not be made Hungarian. If Hungarians are in a majority in Beregszász, that does not mean they should hang another country’s national flag”, an orthodox priest said.

The Hungarian mayor of Beregszász said the Ukrainian attacks against the ethnic minorities do not help victory. He called the Ukrainian representatives’ aforementioned initiative discriminative and aggressive but acknowledged that learning Ukrainian is crucial. Zoltán Babják highlighted that Hungarians living in Transcarpathia are not tourists. They are not anti-Ukraine and want the same as every Ukrainian. They want to use their mother tongue in their everyday life. The European way is not to pay a lot of money for the parents to let their children learn in Ukrainian classes. Ukraine should develop the educational system instead.

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Hungary sees business opportunity in Ukraine

Business opportunity Ukraine

Hungary is providing the Transcarpathian Hungarian community will all the support it possibly can to ensure that Hungarians living in western Ukraine can stay where they are, Péter Szilágyi, the deputy state secretary for the policy for Hungarian communities abroad, said in Toronto at a fund-raising event. Deputy foreign minister Levente Magyar said in Uzhorod that Hungary is willing and able to contribute to the reconstruction of Ukraine.

Szilágyi said the relationship between the diaspora and Hungarians of the Carpathian Basin was deepening thanks to the work of the past years. He said that Hungary in 2023, “the year of the caring nation”, was dedicated to nurturing national values and looking after Hungarian communities in neighboring countries and in the diaspora. Regarding the war in Ukraine, he said at the event held on Saturday local time that Hungary was determined not to get dragged into it, and it called for a ceasefire and peace negotiations. Hungary continues to give priority to supporting schools and organisations of the Transcarpathian Hungarian community, he said, thanking the National Alliance of Hungarians in Canada for organising the fundraising event.

Hungary city sends buses to Ukraine

Helping those in need in line with “our strength, size and abilities” is a basic moral duty, a government official said in Uzhorod on Sunday, at the arrival of six buses donated to Ukraine by the city of Veszprém, in central Hungary. The buses are the first shipment of 14 used vehicles, to be delivered to Ukrainian cities where the war destroyed the public transport fleet, Levente Magyar said. One will serve in Transcarpathia, in western Ukraine, he added.

  • Hungary is willing and able to contribute to the reconstruction of Ukraine,

he said. During the visit, Magyar said he would also aim to review current issues regarding Ukrainian-Hungarian ties, which he said had been “disturbed by regulatory issues regarding the Hungarian minority here which we couldn’t agree on.” He said he hoped for “good will and understanding” from Ukrainian partners to find a “reassuring, if not comprehensive, solution”.

Magyar will also visit Hungarian-funded infrastructure developments in Bucha and Borodyanka, two localities near Kyiv, occupied and destroyed by the Russian army early in the war. “Despite the appearances some wish to maintain, Hungary has an active part in aiding Ukraine,” he said. Magyar also met ethnic Hungarian leaders in Beherove (Beregszász) earlier in the day, and said he had hopes that the “issues around the use of the mother tongue, an extremely sensitive one for the local Hungarian minority, could be brought to a resting point.”

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Hungary helps Transcarpathia in an unusual way

Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó Ukraine Transcarpathia

Hungarian producers and agricultural companies have donated 500 bags of seeds to ethnic Hungarian farmers in western Ukraine’s Transcarpathia region, the National Agriculture Chamber (NAK) said on Wednesday, MTI reports.

The donation was delivered to representatives of the Reformed Church of Transcarpathia and the Association of Transcarpathian Young Hungarian Entrepreneurs in Berehove (Beregszász) by István Jakab, head of farmers’ association Magosz, and NAK head Balázs Győrffy.

The food to be produced from the crops will be donated to those affected by the war, orphanages and retirement homes.

Of the 500 bags delivered, 80 were donated by attendees at the Veszprém County farmers’ ball and 420 by the Hungarian-owned Marton Genetics group, NAK said.

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Minister Szijjártó: While Hungarian schools are accepting Ukrainian refugees, Hungarian schools in Ukraine are being closed

Ukraine and Hungary Cooperation

Hungary is not willing to send ammunition to Ukraine, though it will not stop other European Union countries from doing so, Péter Szijjártó, the foreign minister, said on Monday, adding that Hungary had therefore constructively abstained concerning the matter.

Szijjártó noted that proposals were on the agenda of today’s meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels to increase arms shipments and to finance one billion euros-worth of artillery shells for member states to supply Ukraine from their own stocks as part of the European Peace Framework.

“Hungary is not supplying weapons … we want peace,” he told a press conference held during a break of the meeting. “That’s why we’re not taking part … We’re not supplying ammunition to Ukraine, neither are we preventing others from doing what they want… ”

Hungary’s contribution to the EPF is one percent, or around ten million euros, to be used for other purposes such as working for the stability of the Western Balkans and reducing migration pressure, a ministry statement cited Szijjártó as saying.

The minister said Hungary would not take part in procuring ammunition or delivering it to Ukraine.

Szijjártó said Brussels was still fomenting “an atmosphere of war” and that countries promoting peace were under mounting pressure to fall in line. He added that a diplomatic settlement was the only way to save lives.

“No matter the pressure on us … we continue to represent the cause of peace,” he said.

He said Hungary had been criticised for taking its position to the UN Security Council, adding that it had been frowned on that a country from “the European choir” should “sing out in international organisations”. Given that the EU comprises sovereign countries, “this is quite extraordinary”, he said. “We reject any pressure that undermines the sovereignty of Hungarian foreign policy…” he added.

On the topic of the “disenfranchisement of the Hungarian minority in Ukraine”, Szijjártó said he had turned to Josep Borrell, the EU high representative for foreign affairs, with a request that, when it comes to Ukraine’s possible accession talks, he should make it clear to Kyiv that respect for national rights is one of the most fundamental European values and that the rights of the Hungarian national community should be respected.

He said it was “unacceptable” that 99 Hungarian primary and secondary schools in Transcarpathia were under the cloud of closure from Sept. 1 when 1,300 schools and kindergartens in Hungary had taken in Ukrainian refugee students.

The minister said Ukraine’s EU prospects would be heavily determined by whether Ukraine respects the rights of the Hungarian national minority and whether it restores the rights they enjoyed prior to 2015.

Putin Russian president
Read alsoPutin: region Hungarians live in is old Russian land

Hungarian FM: We want to save Hungarians in Ukraine from the ethnic minority law

Transcarpathia school Hungary

The Hungarian government has applied to the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities for help in its effort to have a Ukrainian law postponed under which “minority schools in Ukraine would in effect be closed down”, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in the Hague on Tuesday.

Following talks with High Commissioner Kairat Abdrakhmanov, the foreign ministry quoted Szijjártó as saying that the Hungarian government had made a decision at the outbreak of the war “not to raise the issue of curbing the rights of Transcarpathia Hungarians before the conflict ends” and “kept to that decision as long as it was possible but the recent, contested law has even worsened the situation of the Hungarian national community”.

Ukraine currently has 99 Hungarian primary and secondary schools which would become Ukrainian state schools from September, Szijjártó said, adding that students could no longer take their secondary school final exams or university entrance examinations in their mother tongue, and vocational training in Hungarian would also be terminated.

From the 5th grade on, the classes taught in Hungarian would be reduced to 20 percent, and universities would be stripped of their right to select their language of education, Szijjártó said.

Szijjártó noted Hungary’s helping Ukrainian refugees opening “1,300 kindergartens and schools” and said “meanwhile in Transcarpathia 100 Hungarian schools are banned from going on as schools teaching children in Hungarian”. “This is obviously unacceptable and shameful … this is a case against which international organisations and the European Union must or should act up,” the minister insisted.

The OSCE High Commissioner has always treated the issue with sympathy and has “always been ready to view the matter factually rather than in line with political expectations or ideologies,” Szijjártó said. “He made it clear that the situation was clearly unacceptable and in conflict with international regulations,” Szijjártó added.

The Hungarian government continues to stand by ethnic kin in Ukraine, “many of whom have been conscripted and died on the front,” Szijjártó said.

Why were 15 March celebrations oppressed in communist Hungary? 4
Read alsoPHOTO GALLERY: Why were 15 March celebrations oppressed in communist Hungary?

Heard about ’Orbán pizza’? Now get ready for ’Putin’s favourite’

We have written about a Hungarian pizzeria coming up with unusual and funny pizza concepts and names. One such is the Orbán pizza: a delicacy that will be available for a limited time at PizzaPhone Pizzéria in Kiskőrös, between 12 March and 19 March. However, a restaurant in Hajdúböszörmény now came up with an even more unusual pizza: Putin’s favourite. What do you think it includes? Read on to find out.

Want to try the Orbán pizza?

PM Viktor Orbán is to celebrate the start of the 1848 Hungarian revolution and freedom fight in Kiskőrös. The town is the birthplace of Sándor Petőfi, one the most popular Hungarian poets and a freedom fighter of 1848-1849. Kiskőrös’ PizzaPhone Pizzéria created the so-called Orbán pizza. Among the toppings of the new treat, you may find even orange, the symbol of Orbán’s governing Fidesz party.

The complete list of toppings of the Orbán pizza contains the following: BBQ, honey base, chicken breast strips, cheese, orange rings, jalapeno peppers. Want to try it? Make sure to go to PizzaPhone Pizzéria in Kiskőrös between 12 and 19 March.

Fancy tasting Putin’s favourite pizza?

There is no shortage of humorous Hungarian pizza bakers. Viktor Orbán is not the only one who inspired the pizza chefs, Index.hu reports. Russian President Vladimir Putin did too. The competitor of the Orbán pizza is now the one called Putin’s favourite.

The menu of the Beregszászi Restaurant and Event House in Hajdúböszörmény includes ‘Putin’s favourite pizza’. It is available with a

sour cream base and toppings of ham, shank, bacon, sheep’s cottage cheese and smoked cheese.

Restaurant named after Beregszász

Yes, you read that right: the restaurant in Hajdúböszörmény really is named after Beregszász. Beregszász (Berehove) is a town in Transcarpathia, Ukraine, located merely six kilometres from the Hungarian-Ukrainian border. Approximately half of the population in the town is Hungarian. People have been bringing means of humanitarian aid (power generators, durable foods, medicine and hygiene items) to Beregszász since the start of the war.

Budapest Airport passengers
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Hungarian Foreign Minister argues Russia and the US could make peace in Ukraine

Foreign minister Szijjártó

The only way to save lives is through peace, not weapons deliveries or sanctions, Péter Szijjártó, the minister of foreign affairs and trade, told lawmakers in parliament on Monday, calling on them to adopt a “pro-peace declaration” submitted by the ruling parties.

In a speech ahead of the debate, Szijjártó said the war had so far proved “disastrous”, with “hundreds of thousands dead, millions displaced, hundreds of thousands of families torn apart and thousands drafted forcefully, while whole regions are in ruins.” Although regional, he said, the war had global implications. He added that time was running out to stop it from turning into a world war. “Meanwhile, the European economy is floundering.”

Szijjártó insisted that Europe and “the transatlantic region” were “in a state of war psychosis”. Some in Brussels, he said, saw weapons deliveries to Ukraine as a competition between the US and Europe in terms of who could provide more. Given that the war is situated in Europe, it is Europe that felt its negative effects “directly”, he added.

As a neighbouring country, Hungary has firsthand experience of the suffering the war has caused. “This war cannot be won, it can only have losers”, Szijjártó said.

The Hungarians of Transcarpathia are being drafted into the Ukrainian military, and some have already died, he said.

Although Hungary is not responsible for the war, the country and its citizens have already paid a high price for it, Szijjártó said. “No one can expect us to sacrifice even more,” he said.

“The international community should focus on saving lives, but that is only possible through peace rather than delivering weapons and imposing sanctions,” he said.

Sanctions have failed nine times, “and you would think we shouldn’t try it a tenth time,” he said. The EU, however, is preparing to do just that, he said.

The global majority is on the side of peace, and Hungary is part of that majority, he said. Peace requires open channels of communication so peace talks can remain a possibility, he said.

Sustainable results will be “impossible” without direct talks between the US and Russia, he said.

Transcarpathian Hungarians

Meanwhile, Hungarians in Ukraine are losing one minority right after the other and are suffering provocations at a time when Hungary is in the midst of the largest humanitarian operation of its history to help Ukrainian refugees, he said.

“Even as 1,247 Hungarian schools have accepted Ukrainian children, Ukraine is preparing to close minority schools from September, to strip [minorities] from the possibility to do their school-leaving exams and university admissions in their mother tongue, and take away universities’ right to choose the language of education,” Szijjártó said.

Hungary stands by Transcarpathian Hungarians and will use all international forums to aid them, he said.

Szijjártó called on lawmakers to “become a part of the global pro-peace majority” and adopt the pro-peace resolution of the ruling parties.

PHOTOS: Hungary helps war-hit regions in Ukraine

Hungary helps Ukraine

Zoltán Kovács, the state secretary for international communications, launched a consignment of humanitarian aid worth 100 million forints (EUR 260,000) and compiled by six Hungarian charities to help civilians in need in the regions affected directly by the war in Ukraine.

At the ceremony in Transcarpathia, Kovács told a press conference that the aid contains power generators, durable foods, medicine and hygiene items. Hungary’s Maltese, Catholic, Baptist and Reformed Charities, the Hungarian Interchurch Aid and the Hungarian Red Cross have been supplying aid to refugees and people in need since the outbreak of the war, Kovács said.

Hungary has so far provided 123.3 billion forints worth of support including 13 billion forints worth of direct aid by the charities and assistance for infrastructure reconstruction and development, as well as fuel supplies.

Putin Russian president Viktor Orbán
Read alsoUkraine says Hungary supports the break-up of the Ukrainian nation

Putin: region Hungarians live in is old Russian land

Putin Russian president

“Russia engaged in a battle for its historic borders”, President Vladimir Putin told tens of thousands of his people at a grandiose patriotic concert in Moscow yesterday. However, those borders changed in the last few centuries. The question is what now Moscow regards its historic border. But the answer might sound terrifying to most Hungarian ears.

Russia does not know its borders

Attila Demkó, a well-known Hungarian author, security policy expert and former diplomat, said that even the Russians cannot tell which their historic borders are. That is because the Moscow-centered state never found its natural geographic boundaries. That resulted in catastrophes sometimes for the Russians and many times for the neighbouring peoples. That is why Hungary was forced to become part of the Soviet Union-led Eastern, Communist block for 45 years after WWII.

And that is true for Russia’s western borders and for its outskirts in the Caucasus, Far East and Kazakhstan.

Gellért Rajcsányi, a Hungarian journalist, therefore, argues that Russia’s borders are where Moscow wants them to be. And that is bad news for the Hungarians if we believe what Putin said and wrote.

Putin thinks Transcarpathia must be Russian

In 2021, the Russian President shared a paper about “the historical unity of Russians and Ukrainians”. Among others, he clears that Transcarpathia, where more than 150,000 Hungarians live, is an old Russian land. He wrote that, in the 18th century, when Russia, Prussia and Austria partitioned the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Moscow regained “the western Old Russian lands, except for Galicia and Transcarpathia, which became part of the Austrian – and later Austro-Hungarian – Empire”.

Furthermore, after the Soviet troops “liberated” Transcarpathia in WWII, the “congress of the Orthodox population of the region voted for the inclusion of Carpathian Ruthenia in the RSFSR or, as a separate Carpathian republic, in the USSR proper”. Yet the Soviet leaders ignored the people’s choice, so Transcarpathia became part of Ukraine, Putin believes.

And it is not only him. Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev wrote today on his Telegram channel that Russia must achieve all the goals of its “special military operation” in Ukraine. “Push the borders of threats to our country as far as possible, even if these are the borders of Poland”, The Guardian translated his last sentence to English. That would mean consuming all Ukraine, including Transcarpathia and tens of thousands of local Hungarians.

He also wrote that Russia would return to its territories and protect its people, suffering from genocide and shelling. Medvedev highlighted that the fate of Ukraine would be made “across the ocean”. He refers to Washington and the United States, who supply the weapons and money to Kyiv to help Ukrainians defend their homeland.

Interestingly, that is what the Hungarian government says. Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó urged American-Russian peace talks after meeting with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres yesterday.

Reader’s letter: Who is responsible for national oppression in Transcarpathia?

Hungarian minority Transcarpathia Ukraine
Reader’s Letter – Unchanged
The more news I read, the more banners about oppression of the Hungarians in Ukraine I see. That’s really surprising because today millions of refugees found homes across Europe including Hungary. And no one discriminates or oppresses them. Such actions are at least unfair and impolite. But why does this happen? What are the reasons?

15 percent of the population is Hungarian

Mainly Hungarians in Ukraine live in the Transcarpathian region. This area historically belonged to Hungary, however, in XXth century it became a part of the USSR. As a result, the Hungarians were torn from their homeland. National majority became the national minority. Nowadays about 150.000 Hungarians live in Transcarpathia, about 15% of the population of the region.
All these decades the Hungarian people had been feeling oppressed but a couple years ago the situation deteriorated so much. Oppression and provocations happened more often and became harsher. For example, a few days ago the local flags and the Hungarian-language signs were removed. Also the personnel purges in Hungarian public organizations were conducted. Ukrainian authorities deny this fact but actually those things happened.
Moreover, in the Transcarpathian region a huge number of men were called-up during the mobilization. Most Transcarpathian Hungarians serve in the 128th mountain assault brigade, stationed in Mukachevo. This brigade bravely fought near Bakhmut where both sides took severe tolls. Hungarians were not an exception. According to a Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó, “many Hungarians from Transcarpathia have died in the war”. Also he called for peacemaking cooperation and conflict de-escalation.

Unfair situation in Transcarpathia

As a matter of fact, the situation is extremely unfair. Hungarians, who are not directly involved and who are not responsible for this, pay a high for this conflict. Transcarpathians bravely and desperately fight on the battlefront, they don’t flee the frontline, and they die for Ukrainian independence. In response, the Ukrainian government deprives them of their national identity. Of course, someone will be right saying that they are citizens of Ukraine and they fight for their state. But they still are a part of the Hungarian ethnic group and every death is a significant loss for Hungary. However, judging by the Ukrainian authorities’ actions, these losses are not so significant.
Journalists connect all these actions with Viktor Baloha, People’s Deputy of Ukraine and ex-Governor of Zakarpattia Oblast (Transcarpathia). He repeatedly spoke negatively about Transcarpathian Hungarians and told them to leave the country. He, with the help of his brothers and son and connected with him organized crime turned the region into a criminal empire which can be bled in their own and state interests. He is responsible for what is going on in the region.
Nevertheless, all this lawlessness may be explained by the activity of the local underworld leaders. If we look at this situation globally, we can see serious national oppression of Hungarians in Transcarpathia. It seems like Hungarian people are transformed into second-class people. Sincerely hope that that’s not true. Otherwise it is an extremely strange return hospitality.
Author: Marek Szymkiewicz, Poland

Russian official: Moscow-Budapest direct flight used by the Russian army may be created soon

Russians direct flight budapest

Igor Korotchenko, the chairman of the Public Council working under the umbrella of the defence ministry, shared details of a controversial plan concerning the launch of a direct Moscow-Budapest flight and “giving back” Hungarian soldiers to PM Viktor Orbán. Telex fact-checked his statement. Below, you may read their result.

Transcarpathian Hungarians should surrender?

The Hungarian Circle of Peace Association (Magyar Békekör Egyesület) wrote about a Russian plan to establish a direct flight between the two capitals. According to them, Putin’s army will use that to send back those Hungarian soldiers whom the Ukrainian military forcibly drafted from Transcarpathia and sent to fight against the invaders but chose to surrender. The incredible plan went viral on the Internet, so telex.hu decided to check it.

The source was a Russian journalist and security and defence expert, Igor Korotchenko. He is also the chairman of the Public Council, working under the umbrella of the defence ministry. He appears regularly on Russian propaganda TV channels like Rossija 1. He talked about such plans in a show on the channel titled ’60 minutes’.

He said the Ukrainian army forcibly drafts ethnic minorities, including Hungarians living in Transcarpathia. He told them not to fight because provided they surrendered, the Russian military would send them back to PM Viktor Orbán. Therefore, a direct flight will be established between the two capitals. Currently, you cannot fly from Budapest to Moscow without a transfer to Cairo, Belgrade or Dubai. But we assume the flight would not be used by civilians, only by the Russian military. Of course, Mr Korotchenko did not share such details in the show.

Putin and some flight attendants of the Russian Aeroflot:

Russian military to create direct Budapest-Moscow flight?

Considering that Hungary is a NATO member and the Orbán government expressed its loyalty towards the alliance multiple times, such a plan seems impossible. Of course, Orbán and his ministers and secretaries regularly slam the EU for the sanctions and talk about the importance of peace (meaning that the Ukrainians would have to give up considerable territories they currently hold). However, a military cooperation with the Russians seems to be utterly unrealistic.

It is true that Mr Korotchenko talked about such a possibility and praised Orbán in the show, saying that the Hungarian prime minister is not a harsh anti-Russian politician. But the Hungarian government considers the entire plan fake news. That is what Bertalan Havasi, Orbán’s press chief, said to Telex.

Thus, nobody will send Hungarian POWs to Budapest on direct flights between Budapest and Moscow.

zelensky orbán
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PHOTOS: Budapest mayor in Transcarpathia, Ukraine, delivers aid

Budapest mayor Transcarpathia Ukraine visit

Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony has delivered aid, including a mobile lifting crane for street lighting maintenance, and eight washer-driers to the mayor of Berehove, a sister city for Budapest, during his visit to Transcarpathia.

Karacsony said that during the visit, he also held talks with leaders of the Berehove region and ethnic Hungarian interest-protection and professional organisations.

He added that he visited the institutions in Berehove and the region in order to gain first-hand experience of the situation and to deliver aid from Budapest.

He said he had established contact with Zoltán Babják, his counterpart in Berehove, on the first day of the war in Ukraine, and humanitarian aid tailored to demand has been continually offered to the city from Budapest ever since.

Babják and Karácsony:

Given that Berehove and its region are rich in thermal water resources, Budapest has offered its experiences in the use of geothermic energy in preparation for the post-war period, Karácsony said.

Visit to a Hungarian kindergarten in Beregszász:

Hungarians living in Ukraine in danger? Anti-Hungarian mood, enforced military conscriptions, atrocities

Sándor Fegyir Hungarian soldier Ukraine

A Hungarian journalist wrote that Transcarpathian Hungarians face continuous insults, and the situation is tense. Transcarpathia is a county of Ukraine populated by 120-150 thousand Hungarians. Most of them have Ukrainian and Hungarian citizenship, many fled their homes after the Russian invasion because they did not want to fight for a country that did not respect their collective rights as an ethnic minority. However, many remained and fight. But remaining Hungarians face atrocities. Hungarians did not move to Ukraine from Hungary. They are an indigenous community living there for a thousand years.

Anti-Hungarian measures in Transcarpathia – Hungarians in danger?

According to index.hu, enforced military conscription affecting the Hungarian community living in Ukraine did not stop. Furthermore, the Hungarian community faces a constant anti-Hungarian mood in Munkács and the neighbouring villages. Moreover, regional media turns local Ukrainians against the Hungarians.

György Dunda, a Hungarian journalist living in Transcarpathia and the director of a local newspaper, Kárpáti Igaz Szó, wrote about the anti-Hungarian insults on his Facebook page. He said that the Ukrainian authorities take off Hungarian symbols, flags and inscriptions in the villages around Munkács. To make matters worse, some leaders of cultural and educational institutions were fired. Authorities also banned Hungarian organisations to wreath the statue of Sándor Petőfi, the poet of the Hungarian 1848 March revolution and freedom fight.

Provided he listed all the anti-Hungarian atrocities since 2017, it would fill an entire newspaper page, Dunda said.

Russian spies to turn Ukrainians against Hungarians?

Based on his experience, commenters on Ukrainian news websites regularly scold the Hungarian nation. And he argues that a spark is enough in a tense atmosphere worsened by the war. Mr Dunda says that is their aim.

The tension on the level of political leaders is palpable. PM Viktor Orbán said last week in a meeting with foreign journalists that Ukraine was a ‘no man’s land’, and compared the war-torn country to Afghanistan. He added he did not believe in Ukrainian success and highlighted Russia regularly started its wars weak but became unstoppable later. Ukrainian politicians are outraged. The mayor of Donetsk threatened not only the prime minister but all of the Hungarians. The Ukrainian foreign minister summoned the Hungarian ambassador in Kyiv for an explanation.

Meanwhile, a Hungarian soldier serving on the front, Sándor Fegyir, said in a post that Russian agents spread fake news both in Hungary and Ukraine. They aimed to turn Ukrainians and Hungarians against each other in Transcarpathia. “Hungarians living in Transcarpathia are decent citizens of Ukraine. Everybody took up arms because we do not want the Russian invaders to kill our relatives in Transcarpathia”, Mr Fegyir cleared on his Facebook. He added that everybody remembered the malenky robot and the concentration camps in which the Soviets murdered Hungarians. He also thanked the Hungarians for help from Hungary. He also asked all those who chose to serve Russia not to intervene.

Index.hu wrote before that authorities take men from fuel stations, train and bus stations, shops, markets and even their own houses. Soldiers even distributed enrollment notices at a funeral. “Nobody would like to fight here. Neither Hungarians nor Ukrainians”, a local man said.

Viktor Orbán EU member Hungary
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