Peter Siyarto
Hungary found itself on the verge of a quarrel with Ukraine: the Ukrainian ambassador in Budapest was summoned to the Foreign Ministry. This was announced by the head of the Hungarian Foreign Ministry Peter Siyarto, he is quoted by Hungary Today.
This happened after the Hungarian official Istvan Grezha was not allowed into Ukraine. The Hungarian official was allegedly banned from entering for the next three years.
Siyarto described the incident as “a bolt from the blue.” The Foreign Minister also noted that shortly before the incident he had talked with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmitry Kuleba: he allegedly promised to focus on the positive aspects of cooperation.
On the morning of November 24, Grezha arrived at the Luzhanka checkpoint in the Transcarpathian region, where the Ukrainian border guards informed him about the entry ban. After waiting an hour, the politician returned to Hungary. There were no official comments. An official is an authorized minister responsible for the development of cooperation between the Sabolch – Satmar – Bereg region and Transcarpathia.
Relations between the countries have aggravated against the background of the election campaign of Budapest in Transcarpathia. On October 26, Kiev also banned entry to two high-ranking Hungarian officials due to campaigning in the region. Officially, their names were not disclosed, according to sources, these are Grezha and the Hungarian Secretary of State, responsible for national policy in the government, Arpad Janos Potapi.
The head of the Hungarian Foreign Ministry Peter Siyjarto then called Kiev's decision pathetic and senseless. On the day of voting, he himself urged Ukrainian Hungarians to vote for the party “Society of Hungarian Culture of Transcarpathia” and the current mayor of Beregovo, representative of the Hungarian community Zoltan Babiak.
In 2019, a scandal erupted between Kiev and Budapest. A video from the Hungarian consulate in Transcarpathia appeared on the network, in which the consul handed out passports to local residents and brought them to an oath of allegiance to Hungary. Later it turned out that these were not passports, but a package of documents for obtaining citizenship. Ukraine expelled the consul from the country. Budapest responded similarly.
