Government protests Ukrainian authorities’ raid of ethnic Hungarian institutions

Ukrainian security service commandos raided several Hungarian institutions in Transcarpathia as well as the home of the president of the Transcarpathian Hungarian Cultural Association, Laszlo Brenzovics, the association said in a statement earlier on Monday.

Szijjarto said that the Hungarian government would “stand up for Transcarpathian Hungarians in every international forum”, adding that he would raise the issue at a meeting of his NATO counterparts on Tuesday.

Szijjarto said that “despite recent pledges and so-called efforts towards reconciliation”, the Ukrainian government’s policies continued to be “anti-Hungarian” and were aimed at intimidating the country’s Hungarian minority. He said it was “unacceptable” for a country aiming for NATO membership to “continuously intimidate and keep an ethnic minority of a NATO member and under pressure .

The raids came after a ruling by a court in Zaporizhia, in eastern Ukraine, in connection with charges of separatism, the association said, adding that it believed the procedure was based on fabricated political charges with the aim of hobbling the activities of Hungarian organisations and intimidating Hungarians of Transcarpathia and their leaders.