“The Embassy of Hungary in Ukraine was surprised and shocked to read the post by Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Irina Vereshchuk on Facebook from March 22, 2022, which was later widely quoted and commented on by Ukrainian media,” wrote the embassy in a statement posted on their Facebook page.
In her statement, Vereshchuk claimed that the Hungarian government is not doing its utmost to help resolve the current situation in Ukraine, and is blocking further EU sanctions on Russia, because Russia allegedly promised to “hand back Transcarpathia” to Hungary.
The Hungarian Embassy in Kyiv strongly refutes such a claim and deems it “unfortunate” that these thoughts “have long been successfully planted in Ukrainian public opinion.” According to the embassy, while Deputy PM Vereshchuk and the Ukrainian government are doing everything they can to protect Ukrainian citizens, the Hungarian government has the same responsibility over Hungarians.
Among some of the recent measures undertaken by the Hungarian government to provide assistance to Ukraine, the Hungarian Embassy listed that Hungary has so far admitted 641,775 refugees and provided some 5,000 tons of aid and donations, worth tens of millions of euros. In the statement, the Kyiv embassy made it clear that Hungary supports all sanctions against Russia, and advocates Ukraine’s EU candidate status.
“The current tragic situation requires cooperation and unbreakable support of each other. Let's not look for enemies where they are not,” the embassy concluded.
Meanwhile, Zoltán Kovács, State Secretary for International Communication, took to his Twitter page to refute the Ukrainian Deputy PM’s claims, saying: “It’s not only groundless but also insane. Sad to see this fake news propagated by officials.”