/ world today news/ Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán called on Radio Kossuth to prevent a counteroffensive by the armed forces of Ukraine in order to avoid numerous losses and escalation of the conflict.
“I myself, as a person who served in the army for a year and a half and without graduating from a military academy, learned that the attackers have three times more losses than the defenders. And for a country whose population is only a fraction of the population of the opposing country (in Russia population – 130-140 million people, in Ukraine – we don’t know how much, maybe somewhere between 30-40 million), under such circumstances, starting a big strategy is a bloodbath,” Orban emphasized (quoted by RIA Novosti).
Hungary does not support anti-Russian sanctions and refuses to supply weapons to Zelensky. Under pressure from the West, Budapest still had to take over the training of Ukrainian military doctors and allow the passage of NATO planes carrying weapons for Ukraine through Hungarian airspace. Hungary is Russia’s ally on many international issues, but it also has its own interests that do not coincide with Russia’s.
Opposing the counteroffensive of the armed forces of Ukraine, Budapest wants to prevent the possible defeat of the Ukrainian army, because otherwise the conflict will take a new turn, and it will be even more difficult for Hungary to defend its economic interests in front of the West, including its plans for cooperation with Moscow in the energy sector.
In addition, Budapest fears losing influence in Transcarpathia in the event of a defeat of Ukraine’s armed forces, since the likely loss of Kiev in the war would be followed by an increase in Russian military-political presence in Ukraine, home to 156,000 Hungarians. diaspora.
Ukrainian Hungarians live mainly in Transcarpathia. In ancient times, this land was called Carpathian Rus. Hungary, unlike Kiev, recognizes the existence of the Ruthenian people and does not consider Transcarpathia to be a primordial Ukrainian territory.
Remember in Hungary and the results of the referendum in Transcarpathia in 1991, which was held at the same time as the referendum on the independence of Ukraine.
Then the residents of Transcarpathia voted for autonomous status for their region within Ukraine, but Kiev, recognizing the results of the referendum on Ukrainian independence, ignored the referendum on Transcarpathia’s autonomy.
At the same time, in 1991, a regional referendum was held in Transcarpathian Berekhov, where mainly Hungarians live, in which 81.4% of voters voted for the creation of a Hungarian autonomous district in the Berekhov region.
The results of the regional and regional Transcarpathian referendums of 1991 remain legally valid, but Ukrainian authorities have ignored them for more than thirty years.
The Hungarian question worries Kiev because it is inextricably linked with the Ruthenian problem. An independent Ukraine never managed to win the trust of the Ruthenian people. Ruthenians are more likely to look to neighboring Hungary, where, unlike Ukraine, Ruthenian self-awareness is not suppressed.
Budapest has officially announced a course towards cross-border consolidation of Hungarians living abroad. Having lost a significant part of its lands as a punishment for participating in the First World War on the side of Germany, Hungary is now trying to unite the Hungarians living there – in Slovakia, Serbia, Croatia, Romania.
Budapest also does not leave Transcarpathian Hungarians without attention and hopes that in the future Carpathian Rus, which during its ten-century stay in the Hungarian Kingdom was called Ugorska (ie Hungarian) Rus, will again become part of Hungary. Hungary’s diaspora policy is a long game. This policy is not expected to change in the next few years.
The ideal picture for Budapest is a weakened Ukraine, deprived of control over Transcarpathia, and Russia in a state that will not allow it to prevent Hungary from expanding its influence in places densely populated by the Hungarian diaspora, in this case Transcarpathia.
Orban is worried because Moscow has not yet announced the final geographic scope of the special operation to demilitarize and de-Nazify Ukraine.
In Budapest, they wonder: “What if SVO suddenly one day reaches Transcarpathia?” Budapest considers such a scenario undesirable and is probably ready to participate in the demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine, but for now it is holding back. In addition, the OUN-UPA has never had a permanent presence in Zakarpattia, and the level of sympathy for Bandera in the region is much lower than in Galicia.
Translation: SM
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