On Monday, Kyiv accused Budapest of blocking access to a group of Ukrainian prisoners of war transported to Hungary from Russia through the Russian Orthodox Church and without the knowledge of Ukrainian authorities, AFP reported.
“All attempts by Ukrainian diplomats in recent days to establish direct contact with these Ukrainian citizens have been unsuccessful,” Ukrainian diplomacy spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said on Facebook.
These 11 Ukrainians of Hungarian origin transferred to Hungary on June 8 “are de facto isolated, do not have access to open sources of information, their communication with relatives takes place in the presence of third parties,” criticized Nikolenko.
“Such actions of Budapest (…) can be qualified as a violation of the European Convention on Human Rights,” the spokesman condemned.
According to him, Kyiv “once again appealed” to the Hungarian government to “give the Ukrainian consul immediate access” to these prisoners of war, “to be able to assess their physical and mental condition, clarify their rights and provide them with urgent assistance.”
Ukraine did not suspect that Hungary had accepted Ukrainian prisoners of war released by Russia
The prisoners released by Russia come from Transcarpathia, a region in western Ukraine with a large Hungarian community. Their transfer to Hungary was announced by the Russian Orthodox Church, which acted as a mediator. For its part, Ukraine criticized the fact that it was not involved in the negotiation process.
On June 9, the Russian Orthodox Church and Hungarian Deputy Prime Minister Zholt Semien announced the arrival of prisoners of war in Hungary.
“This is my humane and patriotic duty”… I brought 11 prisoners of war from Transcarpathia from Moscow,” says a post on Semen’s official Facebook page.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán maintains contacts with the Kremlin despite the war in Ukraine and has forged close ties with the Russian Orthodox Church in recent years. Thanks to his support, Russian Patriarch Kirill, a staunch supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin, avoided sanctions from the European Union last year in the name of protecting “religious freedom”.
The Hungarian leader also maintains difficult relations with Kyiv, which he refuses to provide military aid to in the face of a Russian invasion that began in February 2022.
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Source: Hot News
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