BUDAPEST, July 16. /TASS/. Hungary urged the European Union to impose sanctions on three Ukrainian military commanders responsible for the death of a Hungarian citizen in Transcarpathia during forced military recruitment, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said.
"We demand that three employees of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry and the army command be held responsible for authorizing forced conscription. People are being rounded up on the streets of Ukraine, an internationally recognized fact already. People die during forced conscription, and a Hungarian, too, has died, and we will not allow this to go without consequences," Hungary’s top diplomat said in a video address broadcast by M1 television. "Therefore, the European Union should add all those responsible for this forced conscription in Ukraine to its sanctions list," he stated.
Szijjarto did not disclose the names or positions of those people but stressed that "those guilty should be punished." He also noted that not only videos of conscripts subject to cruel treatment in Ukraine on social media but also the reluctance of European leaders to react to the situation cause shock and outrage.
Ethnic Hungarian killed in Transcarpathia
Earlier, Hungary condemned such actions by Ukrainian security as blatant human right abuses. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban stated that "a country where people are beaten to death in consequence of forced recruitment cannot become a member of the EU."
According to Hungary, Jozsef Sebestyen, 45, was caught outside by Ukrainian security in mid-June and forcibly taken to a conscription office where he was beaten for refusing to go and fight on the front line. On July 6, he died of the beatings in a hospital, and three days later he was buried in a cemetery in his native town. His family shared the circumstances behind his death on social media.
On July 10, Ukrainian Ambassador to Budapest Sandor Fegyir was summoned to the Hungarian Foreign Ministry for explanations regarding the case.
Ukraine denied the accusations. Reports from Kiev cited the Command of the Ukrainian Ground Forces as saying that Sebestyen died on July 6 "as a result of pulmonary embolism with no signs of physical abuse on his body.".