Global Courant
Kiev says the transfer of prisoners serves Orban’s interests, but Budapest claims POWs are free to leave.
A diplomatic spat is brewing between Ukraine and Hungary as Kiev accuses Budapest of ignoring its requests to contact POWs reportedly secretly transferred from Russia.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dymitro Kuleba called the move an act of self-interest by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who has maintained strong political and economic ties with Russia despite the war against Ukraine.
Hungary said on June 9 that it had received a group of 11 Ukrainian prisoners of war from Russia.
“All attempts by Ukrainian diplomats in recent days to establish direct contact with Ukrainian citizens have failed,” Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko said on his Facebook page on Monday.
“This, as well as information received from the relatives of some of them, indicates that the assurances of the Hungarian authorities about the alleged free status of Ukrainian defenders in Hungary are not true,” he said.
Hungarian and international media quoted Orban’s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyas, as saying on Monday that the soldiers arrived “of their own free will” and that Kiev was informed after their transfer.
“They can also leave the country of their own free will at any time. We do not control or monitor them,” said Gulyas.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto reportedly said that Budapest was not officially involved in the transfer of prisoners, adding that it was organized by religious organizations.
But Kuleba said the operation to transfer the prisoners was carried out solely in Orban’s political interest.
“There was one simple goal: Viktor Orban had to show the Hungarians both in Hungary and abroad that he was their only defender,” Kuleba told Ukraine’s public television on Monday.
