Hungary donates buses to Ukraine

Though Hungary has a greater presence in Transcarpathia than any other part of Ukraine, it has intensified its presence in the rest of the country in recent months, Magyar said.

He said the war was getting “more horrific by the day”, adding that the collapse of the Nova Kakhovka dam in southern Ukraine had led to a humanitarian disaster.

As a friend of the Ukrainian people, Hungarians have to be prepared to always react in the most flexible, effective and quickest way possible, he said.

Magyar said his Ukrainian partners, MP Yulia Hryshyna and Transcarpathia Governor Viktor Mykyta, had indicated that the regions most affected by the war were in need of buses, which had only intensified after the collapse of the dam.

Hungarian Interchurch Aid president Laszlo Lehel said the organisation had already donated 20 tonnes of relief supplies to the area most affected by the disaster. Hungarian Interchurch Aid is sending 50 million forints (EUR 136,000) worth of humanitarian aid to the area in the coming days, he said.

Later in the day, Magyar attended the opening conference on an international waste management project in Yanoshi (Makkosjanosi), near Berehove. The project, launched with Hungary, Slovakia, Ukraine, and Romania participating, is aimed at building a waste sorting and storage facility at Yanoshi with a capacity to treat 30,000 tonnes of waste annually. The project is expected to meet the waste management needs of the area for 25-30 years, allowing for a reduced amount of waste ending up in the River Tisza, which flows into Hungary. The complex, to which the Hungarian government is providing a grant of 2.5 million euros, will “manage the daily waste of 100,000 people”, Magyar said.