Ukraine and Hungary. Analysis of recent events in Transcarpathia

The 2020 local elections became the detonator for another Ukrainian-Hungarian scandal in Transcarpathia. The struggle for influence in the region attracted the attention of the Security Service of Ukraine, which with renewed vigor began to fight the Magyar movements here. Ukrainians even began to fear a new war with their neighbors.

Previously, the Security Service of Ukraine reported more than once for the termination of the activities of a group of citizens who tried to organize exit of Transcarpathia from Ukraine. The SBU claims that some individuals tried to get the results revised Trianon peace treaty. According to this Agreement, in 1920, part of the territories, including a number of territories of modern Ukrainian Transcarpathia, were ceded from Hungary. And 94% of Hungarians call the Trianon Agreement "unfair", another 85% consider it "the greatest tragedy". These are the data of a study presented the other day by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. It was conducted over the phone in May 2020. It could not be otherwise, because according to Trianon, the Kingdom of Hungary lost two-thirds of its territories, and one-third of Hungarians ended up on the other side of the border, in neighboring countries.

Yes, the Hungarian district of our Ukrainian Transcarpathia has existed in Ukraine de facto since 1945. This gift of the Czechoslovak government, which was made to the USSR in 1945, turned out to be real for modern Ukraine "Trojan horse" within which a small but very active Hungarian minority lived according to its own laws and customs. It resisted any attempts at assimilation both by Czechoslovakia, which bit off this piece of Austria-Hungary in 1919 and then sank into oblivion, and by the Soviet Union. If the Hungarians behaved more or less quietly under the Union, problems arose in independent Ukraine, and as we will show below, they are fueled by the Russian Federation.

There are two parallel worlds in the city of Berehovo in Zakarpattia Oblast, which is considered the informal capital of the Hungarian district in Ukraine. Officially, Berehove has the same time zone as throughout Ukraine, unofficially, the same time zone as Budapest, minus one hour from the Ukrainian one. And if all state organizations work according to Kyiv time, then private ones: shops, cafes, restaurants, hotels, and hairdressers — are based on Central European Time. The situation is the same with the language of communication: local Hungarians, who are the majority in Beregov, speak three languages ​​- Hungarian among themselves and very reluctantly Russian or Ukrainian with others. The rest for Hungarians are marked by the personal pronoun "they", under which the whole of Ukraine hides with its vertical green power, which has not yet taken place. The parallelism of the two worlds is reflected even in the duplication of signs of state institutions in the Hungarian language, which is somewhat absurd for post-Maidan Ukraine.

A hundred years have passed since Trianon, and passions have boiled over again. The reason for the beginning of the current conflict was that on November 21, 2020, during the swearing-in of deputies of the Surtivska (this is between Uzhgorod and Chop in the western part of Zakarpattia) rural united territorial community, on the initiative of the chairman, some of the elected representatives fulfilled the national anthem of Hungary. It turns out that they swore allegiance to a neighboring state?

But the Hungarian embassy said that deputies of the Surtiv OTG perform the Hungarian national anthem as a "prayer". However, the Security Service of Ukraine decided to check whether there are any possible signs of illegal activity. The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, reported the Hungarian ambassador for the inadmissibility of the Ukrainian deputies' performance of the Hungarian national anthem at meetings. What do we have? the Crimean scenario is already being prepared, and then they will cry and wail about the loss of Transcarpathia? It seems that the script has been rolled back. We will talk about this below.

And the head of this association himself has repeatedly expressed hostility towards Ukraine. The mass media have already written about the "feats" of this odious ex-chairman of the Surtiv village council. Unfortunately, the law enforcement agencies remained modestly silent. On the site of the former club, there is now a restaurant, the premises of the village council are for sale, but... the law enforcement officers are silent. They are also silent about the fact that this chairman claimed in an interview that Ukrainians are hostile to Hungarians. Isn't this inciting ethnic enmity? Election falsification is a separate topic altogether. Impunity breeds new crimes.

The criminal proceedings concern the conclusion of fictitious contracts of Hungarian charitable foundations. According to law enforcement officers, they may harm the state security and sovereignty of Ukraine.

Subsequently, the Security Service of Ukraine also confirmed the fact of searches of the officials of one of the charitable funds in Transcarpathia, the leader of the Communist Party of Ukraine (Party of Hungarians of Ukraine) Vasyl (Laszlo) Brenzovich, as well as several other people. The press service of the Transcarpathian Regional Prosecutor's Office said that they are not yet commenting on the situation with the notification of suspicion to Vasyl Brenzovych, the leader of the party of Transcarpathian Hungarians KMKS.

After the SBU searches, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hungary, Péter Szijártó, stated that in Ukraine, "an incomprehensible political swing continues, regarding Hungarian parties and the Hungarian minority."

On December 12, investigators of the Security Service of Ukraine opened a criminal case against the deputies of the Surtiv Rural United Community in Zakarpattia Oblast. The deputies are accused of separatism, treason and forgery of documents under three articles of the Criminal Code.

Members of the European Parliament from the Hungarian parties "Fidesz" and "Christian Democratic People's Party" stated that Ukraine is creating in Zakarpattia Oblast the "civil war" situation. Hungarian politicians are sure that they were held for the purpose of intimidation and pressure: "we consider it shameful and deeply condemn the use of armed force by the Ukrainian authorities against the leaders and organizations of the Hungarian community."

The Ambassador of Hungary to Ukraine István Ijdyarto disagrees with the statements of the Hungarian deputies for the "civil war in Transcarpathia". According to him, Hungary wants to develop "good-neighborly political, cross-border and economic relations." She also wants Ukraine to guarantee the rights of Hungarians living in Transcarpathia. Istvan Ijjarto expressed hope that no one in Transcarpathia seeks to create a situation of civil war. He emphasized that Budapest did not prove to the world that it was interested "in the artificial destabilization of Transcarpathia." According to him, Hungary "did not interfere in the internal affairs of Ukraine."

In Hungary, they reacted quite sharply to the Ukrainian bans, denying any accusations. Such a diplomatic conflict can seriously affect bilateral cooperation and become another obstacle on the way to Euro-Atlantic integration of Ukraine. Hungary already blocked the NATO-Ukraine Commission after the adoption of the language law, so it is not surprising that the reaction of Ukraine by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hungary, Péter Szijártó, was taken as a message that Ukraine refused to support Hungary in its efforts for Euro-Atlantic integration.

And a completely different judgment is expressed on the other side of the barricades. Hungary itself declares that Ukraine has been disrespecting the rights of national minorities for years: "in an associated country of the European Union, which has repeatedly declared its intention to integrate into the EU and NATO, such cases are unacceptable, therefore we call on the European Parliament to include this unprecedented violation on the agenda of the December plenary meeting".

It was also reported that on the day of the elections in Ukraine, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hungary, Péter Szijártó, wrote a post on Facebook where he openly supported the Communist Party of Ukraine ("Party of Hungarians of Ukraine"), and before that, the State Secretary of Hungary for National Policy, János Árpad Potápi, during his visit to Transcarpathia, campaigned for the same party. Potapi directly called to support this party in the local elections. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine condemned these actions and turned to the police. Then the agency decided to ban the entry into Ukraine of the state secretary of the office of the prime minister of Hungary and another official, whose position was not specified. The Ministry handed over a note of protest to the Ambassador of Hungary, Istvan Ijdjarto, that due to such political agitation, Hungary violated Article 60 of the Law of Ukraine "On Local Elections" and Article 57 of the "Electoral Code of Ukraine", which prohibit foreigners from participating in election campaigning.

The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hungary, Péter Szijártó, called Ukraine's ban on the entry of two high-ranking persons from Hungary "deplorable and absurd". He also claims that the members of the OSCE monitoring mission in Ukraine were prohibited from contacting representatives of the Hungarian community in Transcarpathia and were allowed to communicate only with Ukrainian special services. He considers such a situation "scandalous". Sijarto said this during an online meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the OSCE.

The head of the Foreign Ministry of Hungary asked Albania, which currently chairs the OSCE, to send observers to the Zakarpattia region. He also counts on NATO's solidarity in this matter and emphasized that Hungary will continue to block Ukraine's rapprochement with the Alliance. The OSCE promptly responded to a new unprecedented attack by Hungary against Ukraine. But the special monitoring mission of international observers refused to go to Transcarpathia to "protect" Hungarians at the request of Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijarto, letting Budapest know that the OSCE supports Kyiv, which strongly reacts to Hungary's interference in Ukraine's internal affairs.

Defeated on this front, Mr. Sijarto decided to play on another; he promised to meet with the person responsible for NATO affairs to discuss blocking Ukraine's membership in the Alliance.

However, NATO itself expressed a different opinion regarding the situation in Transcarpathia. Ukraine and Hungary should resolve their bilateral issues themselves, said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. According to him, the Alliance is aware of this conflict between countries. The Secretary General also emphasized that the current situation will not affect NATO-Ukraine relations.

At the same time, he believes that the meeting of NATO foreign ministers, in which the head of the foreign policy department of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, also participated to discuss the security situation in the Black Sea region, "demonstrated that we are able to continue strengthening our partnership with Ukraine.... We are able to provide more assistance and are able to meet at the ministerial level to discuss issues of common concern," the NATO Secretary General emphasized.

So Mr Peter Sijarto lost on both fronts. And it happened partly because the Hungarian right-wing conservatives (and now the revanchists) have a skeleton in their closet. And the extermination of Ukrainians from the Carpathian Sich, brutal persecution and punitive actions against the local population during the Nazi occupation. They are not going to apologize or repent for those "achievements". The current government treats Russia in the best way, although the patriotic representatives of the Hungarian people were fiercely exterminated after the uprising of the late 50s of the last century.

And when the owner invites whoever he wants to his house, even if it is observers, that is his trouble. Having invited, therefore had such a desire. But when the owner invites observers to someone else's house, it is beyond common sense. Isn't it easier for Sijarto to invite himself somewhere? You can even invite the OSCE with you to check. You can talk to the boss on the way, they say, Putin has been there for a long time and is present virtually and in reality through the vendors.

But the fakes for the alleged persecution of Hungarians in Ukraine are an element of a hybrid war on the part of Russia. Such a statement was made at the meeting of the "Working group on countering hybrid threats". The meeting was held on December 9, 2020 at the initiative of the People's Deputy, Ms. Iryna Vereshchuk, in the "Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence" of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. According to information from representatives of foreign intelligence and the Security Service of Ukraine, there are not isolated data on the "Russian trail" in provoking tension in Transcarpathia. Cases of intervention involving pro-Russian forces have been recorded since 2015.

An interesting fact is that the information diversions are taking place on the side of Hungary and on the side of the Russian Federation almost synchronously. This is indicated by open criminal proceedings. Meanwhile, the spreading of fakes about the alleged oppression of the Hungarian national minority is an element of a hybrid war on the part of Russia. There are all the signs that the Russian Federation is simply using Transcarpathia as a tool to destabilize Ukraine and artificially strain Ukrainian-Hungarian relations.

And the Russian Orthodox Church, which still dominates Transcarpathia, can play a despicable, treacherous role in this, as well as Uzhgorod antichrist, Pip Sidor.

Unfortunately, the patriotic (pro-Ukrainian) communities of the OCU are few and do not affect the general situation in the region. Roman Catholics, Uniates are not distinguished by their active position. And the reformists are pro-Hungarian. Therefore, we assume that the Kremlin can also use the religious factor to further destabilize the situation in Transcarpathia.

Lajos Nagy and Sandor Rud

(city of Berehovo), Magyaroni