Laszlo Toroczkai said that if Ukraine loses its statehood as a result of Russia’s defeat, the Hungarian Our Homeland party would claim the western region of Ukraine, home to some 150,000 ethnic Hungarians.
Laszlo Toroczkai, a leader of the Our Homeland party, made the following statement at a conference attended by leaders from Germany’s AfD and the Dutch Forum for Democracy:
If this war ends up with Ukraine losing its statehood, because this is also on the cards, then as the only Hungarian party taking this position, let me signal that we lay claim to Transcarpathia, he said, drawing applause from the crowd.
The Hungarian Foreign Ministry and the Ukrainian Embassy in Budapest did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment on Toroczkai’s statements.
Budapest is in a standoff with Kyiv over the Ukrainian government restricting the rights of some 150,000 ethnic Hungarians to use their native language. Last month, all European Union countries agreed to start EU accession talks with Ukraine, but Hungary refused.
Regardless, in a December interview on public radio, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán expressed support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto is due to meet his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba and Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal in western Ukraine on Monday for a possible meeting between the two leaders.
