‘Ukraine Ready To Improve Hungarian Rights’
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
KYIV/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Hungary’s president said Tuesday that Ukraine’s leader is ready to restore language and administrative rights to ethnic Hungarians, many of whom fight and die in the Ukrainian army.
Katalin Novák, the highest Hungarian leader to visit neighboring Ukraine, said she spoke with President Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv about the plight of roughly 150,000 ethnic Hungarians.
Zelensky stressed he is “ready to grant Ukraine’s Hungarians the rights ethnic Ukrainians enjoy in Hungary,” Novák added in comments monitored by Worthy News.
She said he “hailed the perseverance” of ethnic Hungarians living in the Transcarpathian region. “The two countries are mutually interested in granting full minority rights to the ethnic Hungarian community. We do not need highfalutin phrases … ethnic Ukrainians in Hungary enjoy a wide range of [minority] rights, and that is quite right,” Novák said
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó suggested that restoring the rights ethnic Hungarians enjoyed in 2015 could make Hungary more willing to agree on Ukraine’s eventual membership of the European Union or NATO military alliance.
As a member of both organizations, Hungary can effectively veto enlargement in both blocs.
“Hungary expects Ukraine to restore the rights of its Hungarian minority as they were in 2015 regarding the use of the mother tongue, culture, and administration,” he said. “If Ukraine aspires to become a member of the EU, it must accept its values.”
DRAFTED IN ARMY
It was unclear if those rights would be extended to Ukraine’s Russian community.
However, Szijjártó said of the 150,000 Hungarians living in Ukraine, “many” had been “drafted into the Ukrainian army and lost their lives.” The sooner the war ends, the fewer Ukrainians and Ukrainian Hungarians will die, Szijjártó stressed.
He and Novák seek an immediate ceasefire. Hungary refuses to allow weapons deliveries to Ukraine through its territory, but Novák said it supports peace talks.
Novák said she saw no military solution that could ensure peace in the long run. Referring to Zelensky’s “peace initiative,” she explained it was important that “Hungary should participate in any movement that brings peace closer; I indicated our readiness to join the negotiations, which the Ukrainian president welcomed.”
Novák, a devout Christian and Hungary’s first female president said she also spoke about the war with Pope Francis and “how we could promote a desire for peace in those that live further away from the conflict”.
She recalled that Francis told her that female leaders are instrumental and that the pontiff “personally relies” on her in promoting peace.
While Hungary has been accused of maintaining close relations with Russia despite its invasion of Ukraine, Szijjártó criticized Moscow for walking away from a grain deal.
HALTING GRAIN IMPORTS
Under the agreement, Ukraine, a world breadbasket, could export grain safely through the Black Sea.
However, he defended Hungary’s decision to halt grain imports from Ukraine to protect its farmers. “Hungary has always kept solidarity corridors open, contributing to Ukrainian grain being delivered to African and Middle Eastern countries,” he said.
“Some of the grain, however, remained in Hungary rather than being transported to the countries in need,” Szijjártó added.
That meant a glut of cheap Ukrainian grain “threatened to ruin” Hungarian farmers and markets.
“The transit routes to other countries remain open during a ban on the trade of Ukrainian grain products in Hungary,” the minister argued.
Yet Hungary’s move already added to tensions with the EU, which already withheld billions of euros in funding to Hungary over its perceived lack of democratic credentials and little rule-of-law progress.
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