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Zelensky meets Transcarpathian Hungarians, FM Szijjártó lashes out
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met representatives of the Hungarian community in Transcarpathia, including soldiers serving in Ukraine’s defence forces, in a highly symbolic visit that immediately sparked a fierce response from Hungary’s Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó. The meeting took place just days before Hungary’s parliamentary election.
In a post on X, Zelensky said (in English and in Hungarian) that the talks focused on several practical and urgent issues: preparations for next winter, the relocation and support of businesses, the role of local municipalities in stabilising budgets, the return of Ukrainians currently abroad, and the rehabilitation of soldiers and veterans. He also thanked the local Hungarian community for its resilience during what he described as a difficult winter and for supporting Ukraine’s frontline efforts against Russian attacks.
The Ukrainian president also presented awards to Hungarian-origin soldiers from the region, thanking them for their service in defending Ukraine’s airspace as well as critical civilian infrastructure.
Szijjártó accuses Zelensky of “playing theatre”
The visit drew an immediate and unusually sharp reaction from Szijjártó, who accused Zelensky of staging a political performance ahead of Hungary’s election.
According to the Hungarian foreign minister, the Ukrainian leader should not be “playing theatre in Transcarpathia three days before the parliamentary election”, but should instead focus on ending what Budapest describes as forced conscription practices and restoring the minority and mother-tongue rights that Hungary says were stripped from the Transcarpathian Hungarian community in 2015.
Szijjártó repeated long-standing Hungarian government claims that Kyiv has failed to adequately protect the rights of the Hungarian minority in western Ukraine, particularly in the areas of education and language use.
I met with representatives of the Hungarian community of Zakarpattia, including military personnel. We spoke and discussed many important issues – above all, preparations for the next winter, business relocation, the role of local self-government in filling the budget, the return… pic.twitter.com/Wc78TCh0SG
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) April 9, 2026
Visit lands during Hungary-Ukraine political tensions
The clash comes at an exceptionally sensitive political moment. Hungary’s election campaign has already been dominated by foreign policy tensions, allegations of outside interference, and the fallout from recently leaked conversations involving Szijjártó and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
Fresh leaks published this week suggest the Hungarian foreign minister briefed Moscow on key EU discussions related to Ukraine and even offered to share EU documents concerning accession talks. The revelations have intensified scrutiny of Budapest’s Russia policy and placed even more attention on any Hungary-Ukraine flashpoint.
Against this backdrop, Zelensky’s decision to visibly engage with the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia appears likely to fuel further debate inside Hungary, where the government has repeatedly used the issue of minority rights in Ukraine as a central foreign policy talking point.
Why this matters for Hungary
For readers in Hungary, the timing is crucial. With the parliamentary election only two days away, the dispute could quickly become another campaign issue, especially as Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government continues to frame Ukraine-related questions through the lens of sovereignty, minority protection, and EU pressure.
Sounds like Mr. Szijjártó. Justifying his sharing EU closed door intel with Russia as he frames a president visiting his own citizens on his own sovereign soil as interference in Hungary’s election.
Quite the reversal of traditional diplomatic logic.
Do you people get paid to say Russia or Russian? Bla bla bla by Soros or Murdock NGO I wonder?. Jewzensky doesn’t give a crap about ethnic Hungarians existing in Urkraine or ethnic Russians in Donbass. This is just optics, smoke and mirrors as usual.
Nothing like a little anti-semitism to spice up your post eh It doesn’t help your credibility
🙄🙄🙄
Kalman , you are absolutely right !!!
“Zelensky met representatives of the Hungarian community in Transcarpathia, including soldiers serving in Ukraine’s defence forces, ….”
I don’t get it ~ did Zelensky conscript these Hungarian men to fight for Ukraine ?
Did they make that choice themselves?
Oh Boy! Here we go again. ……by the way, no one pays me for what I say. Who would? I’m not that proud of it.
Nonetheless, I would point out that some Hungarian politicians never tire of crying about Hungarian ethnics left behind after Hungary was unjustly chopped up by the Treaty of Trianon. Of course they always fail to mention, and ignore that there were millions living in the lost regions who were not Hungarian. Borders are like that. They are lines on a map, and like current day Hungarian politicians, people tend to ignore those lines for “apolitical” tasks like making a living or escaping tyranny…….or raising political dust.
Currently, the Hungarian government is fighting with Ukraine, but has fought verbal wars with every one of it’s neighbors in the past. They do this while ignoring that there are upwards of 4 million Hungarian ethnics (including their descendants) living in North America alone, and many more living in Austria, Germany, the United Kingdom, etc. Those good Hungarian people far outnumber those who were carved out of the country by the Treaty of Trianon.
Was Trianon a tragedy? Yes……it most certainly was. Is Trianon the only reason so many Hungarian ethnics live abroad? Not by a long shot. Just like the Slovaks, Serbs, Germans and Romanians who live in parts of Hungary are Hungarian, the Hungarian soldiers that Zelenskyy visited are, in fact, Ukrainian.
Yeah, Zelensky is not even allowed to meet with people inside Ukraine or it is a provocation against Hungary. There is absolutely no reason why Hungary cannot have perfectly normal relations with Ukraine as does Poland or Romania. The problem Hungary has is right under your nose if you care to understand it. It has nothing to do with the rights of ethnic Hungarians because if that was the case you have an even bigger dispute with Slovakia. The question of the rights of ethnic Hungarians is used as a phoney excuse by Fidesz to drive Hungarians against Ukraine. The reason Fidesz does it is to drive negative Hungarian sentiment against Ukraine to give public support for its’ anti-Ukraine actions in the EU and NATO. This is part of the bargain Orban has made with Putin. Hungary is required by Russia to take action against Ukraine to support Russia’s takeover of Ukraine.