BUDAPEST, March 4. /TASS/. Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto, who is currently on a visit to Moscow, hopes to return home with two ethnic Hungarians who fought for Ukraine, were captured by Russian forces and are now awaiting release.
The Hungarian Foreign Minister said he had discussed the matter with Russia's First Deputy Prime Minister Denis Manturov and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
"Many Hungarians from the Transcarpathia region [of Ukraine] were forcibly conscripted into the Ukrainian army and immediately sent to the front. Many of them, unfortunately, died, many went missing, and some ended up in Russian captivity. Every Hungarian is important to us. We would like Hungarian prisoners of war to be able to return home from Russia, so today we will try to ensure that there are more of us on the plane back than on the way here," Szijjarto wrote on his Facebook page (banned in Russia, owned by the Meta corporation, which is considered extremist in Russia).
On March 3, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed by phone the case of Subcarpathian Hungarians who participated in military operations in Ukraine and ended up in Russian captivity. According to the Kremlin press service, the two leaders discussed, in particular, issues "concerning Hungarian citizens mobilized into the Ukrainian armed forces and captured by Russia."
Earlier Russia transferred prisoners of war holding both Ukrainian and Hungarian citizenship to Hungary. In June 2023, a group of 11 people, natives and residents of the Transcarpathia region were handed over to Hungarian authorities through the mediation of the Russian Orthodox Church and the assistance of the Budapest-based charity, the Sovereign Order of Malta.