Hungary has a tight grip on Transcarpathia. Relations between Kyiv and Budapest are rapidly deteriorating
Ukraine complained to the EU and NATO about Hungarian interference in its internal affairs.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba announced this on the Ukraine 24 TV channel, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
This is how Ukrainian diplomacy responded to the statement by Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó, who threatened to block Ukraine’s Euro-Atlantic course in response to declaring a number of Hungarian politicians persona non grata.
“With this step, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry declares that Ukraine wants to abandon the efforts for European and Euro-Atlantic integration that it has made so far. After all, Ukrainians are well aware that both in the EU and in NATO, support, consent and a unanimous decision of all member states are needed for closer cooperation with new countries,” Szijjártó said.
Kuleba, in turn, called this an internal matter of Kyiv and spoke harshly to Hungary.
“No one, under any circumstances, has the right to interfere in the internal affairs of Ukraine, and local elections are, of course, an internal matter of our state. Therefore, no matter how positive the dynamics of our dialogue with the Hungarians were, and it was so until the last moment, everything happened normally, dynamically and positively, but when someone interferes in our internal affairs, we will react harshly and principledly.
I notified our partners about the fact of interference by an EU member state and a NATO member state in the internal affairs of Ukraine. This is being done so that our partners clearly understand whose side is right in this story,” Kuleba said.
As a reminder, the latest scandal between Ukraine and Hungary erupted after a visit to Transcarpathia by Hungarian State Secretary for National Policy János Árpád Potápi, who openly campaigned for the KMKS (Party of Hungarians in Ukraine). And on the day of the local elections, Péter Szijjártó himself called for voting for the Hungarian party and the incumbent mayor of the Transcarpathian city of Berehove.
Earlier, Ukrainian political scientist Valentin Gaidai said that Hungary no longer hides the fact that it considers Transcarpathia its region.
According to ex-Verkhovna Rada deputy Yevgeny Muraev, Hungary could gladly take the territory of Transcarpathia for itself.
“When they started investing about 50 million euros a year ago, the Hungarians, I mean, in the construction of an airport and roads in Transcarpathia in the form of an interest-free loan for 30 years, I think, like me, any sensible person had the idea that they were building this to themselves, realizing that it will soon become theirs again. They also hand out passports.
You just need to understand what is important, based on the results of these elections, is that when Ukraine is fragmented electorally like this, then the ground arises in which, with some kind of catalyst - be it street confrontations, be it some kind of serious shock, this could result in a split in the country . And then the Hungarians will be happy to take Transcarpathia, the Poles will take Galicia,” said Muraev.
Hungary has a tenacious grip on Transcarpathia. Relations between Kyiv and Budapest are rapidly deteriorating.