Despite Hungary’s foreign minister stating that he sees a way forward in the conflict with Ukraine over ethnic minorities living in the country, giant anti-Hungarian posters have cropped up in several Transcarpathian settlements.
According to Index.hu, the posters include pictures of László Brenzovics, president of the Society of Hungarian Culture of Transcarpathia (KMKSZ) and representative of the Ukrainian parliament, József Barta, leading teachers and politicians with the words “We Will Stop the Separatists!”.
According to reports, the posters appeared on Saturday around settlements including Ungvár (Uzhhorod), Munkács (Mukachevo) and Beregszász (Berehove), whose populations are mainly Hungarian.
Along with the newly erected anti-Hungarian sentiment, Ukraine has also conducted an anti-Hungarian campaign in local media for some months now.
Hennadiy Moscal, governor of the Transcarpathian region of Ukraine, claims that the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (FSB) is responsible for the posters, and they gave themselves away with their incorrect use of language.
“The authorities are still looking for the perpetrators, although the way and the language of this provocation suggests this is the act of Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, which has already tried to generate conflict between Hungarian and Ukrainian population of Transcarpathia,” he said.
“They put such posters around Berehove and Vynohradiv Raion in April last year – those were in Hungarian back then. These and the previous posters were all Russian mirror translations. They have set the central office of KMKSZ on fire twice this year. These cases have been resolved and it turned they were committed by Russia. We will do our best to get the “client” of this provocation as well. However, it already turned out these barbaric acts cannot deceive neither Hungarians nor Ukrainians in Transcarpathia,” he added.
Meanwhile, MTI reports that Péter Szijjártó, minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade and his Ukraine counterpart Pavlo Klimkin have negotiated on these issues.