Transcarpathian Hungarian soldiers liberate towns near Kharkiv

In the second half of September, the 68th Transcarpathian Battalion participated in the Kharkiv operation. Among the many brave soldiers, there were Hungarians, too. The first soldiers to enter some of the towns, near the Russian border, were also Hungarian. This is how Sándor Fedir reported the new advancements from the front in Ukraine.

Sándor Fedir posted on Facebook his new report from the battlefield, after reclaiming a Ukrainian village from the Russian forces. Sándor Fedir is a well-known figure in Transcarpathia, but he also appeared in the Hungarian media. He is a professor at the Ungvár National University and a tourism expert. On 23 October, the battalion remembered the revolution of 1956 with the famous “Ruszkik Haza!” (“Russki, go home!”) quote. In the short video, we can see the symbol of the revolution, the Hungarian flag with a hole in the middle, symbolising the similarities of the events.

In an interview with kiszo.net, Sándor also said:

I do not just fight for the independence and sovereignty of Ukraine, but also so that the next generation can live in a civilised world.

The story of Sándor

On the day of the Russian invasion, the man who has never seen war before went to sign up to become a conscript. After an intensive few weeks of training, he went to the battlefield where he spent more than a hundred days. He just got his first chance to have a 10-day break from the horrors of war. He said that he just realised that everything he is interested in is just secondary. He said:

First comes my family and then my home country.

He would have never thought that Russia would invade Ukraine because he did not see the logic in it. By now,, he realised that this war has no economic incentive, but this is a cultural war. He said Russia wants to destroy Ukraine and its identity. His main goal was to prevent the war from reaching Transcarpathia and then later the neighbouring countries: Hungary, Slovakia, Poland and Czechia.

He also talked about his experience on the battlefield. The hardest part for him was getting used to being self-reliant in every aspect of life. For a free-thinking man like him, following orders no matter what, was also hard to accept. The most amazing part about Sándor is that he did not give up teaching, even when he was at the front. At first, he did not even tell his students that he is on the battlefield.

• Read also: This Hungarian professor from Transcarpathia gives online classes from the front!

These soldiers also make use of their Hungarian language when using radios. Instead of delivering messages personally they just share them through the radio in Hungarian as the Russians cannot understand them. He mentioned that he learnt this technique from the Navajos, who used their native language on the battlefield in the second world war.

Closing thoughts

At last, he said that in 1956, the Hungarians fought for their independence from the Russian occupation and in 2022, the Ukrainians do the same. He explained that it is a misconception that the Hungarians in Ukraine do not think that this is also their war to wage. Many Hungarians have died in the war already. He said that we are all cosmopolitan. Politicians come and go, but we have been living together for a thousand years now. Despite what the rhetoric says, Hungarians did not turn their back on Ukraine, he added. He hopes that one day, the relations between the two countries will improve.

Read alsoThe era of terror: the story of the Hungarian orange

Source: Kiszo.net, Facebook.com, DNH