Kyiv: Budapest wants to create a Hungarian enclave in Zakarpattia
Acting Minister of Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Yegor Bozhok in an interview with the Voice of America said that Hungarian authorities are trying to create a Hungarian enclave on the territory of Ukraine.
"Ukraine didn't complicate the Ukrainian-Hungarian relations. The main problem is the so-called Hungarian reunification of the territory, which blinded Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his associates," - said Bozhok.
Hungary has already achieved this in Serbia. Slovakia and Romania are also facing this issue, Bozhok added.
According to him, in recent years this issue has created a problem not only for Ukraine but also for several EU member States.
"The key difference between Kyiv and Budapest now is that we call those who live in the Zakarpattia region as citizens of Ukraine of Hungarian origin, but Budapest considers them Hungarians who live in Zakarpattia. And I want to emphasize that they call this region Zakarpattia, not a Zakarpattia region of Ukraine", - said the diplomat.
The escalation of the conflict between Ukraine and Hungary occurred this week when Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó arrived in Zakarpattia.
Later, Szijjártó said that he did not understand why Ukraine reacted so negatively to the visits of Hungarian officials to Zakarpattia on ahead of elections to the Verkhovna Rada.