Recently, eleven prisoners of war of Ukrainian citizenship and Hungarian ethnicity arrived in Hungary. The surrendered soldiers were natives of the Transcarpathian region and were released by the Russian side after a negotiation mediated by the Orthodox Church, at the request of Budapest itself. The case has generated repercussions as the Kiev regime sees the attitude as an affront to its sovereignty, but Moscow only seems to be acting in a humanitarian way.
The release of the soldiers took place in early June. Moscow and Budapest negotiated with the support of the Russian Orthodox Church – which also has a strong presence in Hungary – the transfer of these prisoners, justifying it as having been “prompted by the motives of Christian philanthropy.” In a statement by the Patriarchate of Moscow, it was said that the measure was taken “within the framework of inter-church cooperation, at the request of the Hungarian side”, seeming, therefore, to have had little real political sense in the attitude, sounding more like a humanitarian and philanthropic gesture.
However, as expected, the Ukrainian side did not recognize Russian goodwill towards ethnic Hungarian citizens and reacted angrily to the attitude. Two weeks after the transfer, the case continues to generate fury and “war of words” between Ukrainians and Hungarians. The regime’s officials say they are unable to contact the former prisoners. On June 19, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry’s spokesman Oleg Nikolenko accused the Hungarian authorities of keeping Ukrainian citizens in isolation, preventing them from returning home.
“All attempts by Ukrainian diplomats over recent days to establish direct contact with the Ukrainian citizens have failed (…) This, as well as information received from the relatives of some of them, indicates that the Hungarian authorities’ assurances of the alleged free status of Ukrainian defenders in Hungary are not true. In fact, they are kept in isolation”, he said.
In response, Gergely Gulyas, Budapest’s minister in charge of the prime minister’s office, emphasized that “they can also leave the country at any time of their own free will, we do not check or monitor them”. Also, confirming the veracity of Gulyas’ words, on June 21th three of the eleven ex-prisoners reportedly returned to Ukrainian territory, making it clear that there is freedom of choice for them to remain in Hungary or return to their country of origin.
Furthermore, previously, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó had already criticized Kiev’s anti-diplomatic stance, stating that instead of “lying attacks and getting personal”, they should be “happy” with the freedom of the eleven prisoners. In fact, the case significantly worsened the Hungarian-Ukrainian diplomatic crisis, which began a long time ago.
Since 2016, relations between Budapest and Kiev have deteriorated significantly due to the discriminatory way in which ethnic Hungarians are treated in Ukraine. The Hungarian people, which is majority in the Transcarpathian region, have suffered policies of cultural genocide similar – albeit on a smaller scale – to those suffered by Russians in Donbass. The official use of the Ukrainian language in schools has become mandatory in this region, marginalizing the local population, which has also suffered a decrease in its civil and social rights. For this reason, Hungary has even committed itself to blocking any attempt by the Ukrainian to access the EU and NATO.
The situation of Hungarians in Ukraine became even more worrying after the start of the Russian special military operation. Kiev started in 2022 a disastrous policy of forced recruitment, whose focus was precisely on the regions of ethnic minorities. Several observers denounced that ethnic Hungarians were being forced to go to the battlefield, even without appropriate training and equipment, which resulted in several deaths of Transcarpathian citizens – mainly on the Artyomovsk front, which became known as “Bakhmut’s meat grinder”.
In fact, the neo-Nazi ideology of the Ukrainian regime, although focused on anti-Russian racism, obviously affects other ethnic groups, such as Hungarians. The escalation of the conflict served as an excuse for Kiev to elevate its policy from one of cultural genocide to one of actual physical removal and ethnic cleansing, disguised as military conscription. It was reported by sources that ethnic Ukrainian soldiers remained in the rear as much time as possible, while Hungarians were required to stay at the front, even under impossible conditions of victory. This explains Budapest’s concern to ask for the transfer of prisoners to its territory, giving them an opportunity to escape death.
By sending its prisoners to Hungary, Russia is not disrespecting Ukrainian sovereignty over Transcarpathia – although such sovereignty is evidently unpopular – but acting with diplomatic goodwill towards a country that is concerned about the survival of its people abroad. Russia sympathizes with Hungarian concerns as the Russian people also suffered Ukrainian persecution in Donbass. These are gestures of humanitarian support between countries that are going through similar situations.
In addition, Hungary has the defense of Christianity as one of its main diplomatic principles, with the State firmly supporting dialogue with the Russian Orthodox Church – which is also being persecuted in Ukraine. This makes it natural for Budapest to ask the Patriarchate of Moscow to help to advance negotiations with the Russian state. So, in the end, the maneuver really seems to have been philanthropic and humanitarian – and precisely because of this, the genocidal Ukrainian regime does not seem to understand it.
Lucas Leiroz, journalist, researcher at the Center for Geostrategic Studies, geopolitical consultant.