Embassy Staff and Journalists Evacuated Safely from Kyiv, says Foreign Minister

Some staff of the Hungarian embassy and their family members, along with Hungarian journalists and civilians, have been evacuated safely from Kyiv, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in a video message posted on Facebook late Saturday.

Speaking from New York, where he met with United Nations officials, Szijjártó noted that a decision was taken on Friday for his ministry to organize an international evacuation convoy from Kyiv, where a number of Hungarian diplomats and their family members, as well as civilians, remained in difficult circumstances.

He said the evacuation convoy with 35 people reached the Hungarian consulate in Ungvár (Uzhhorod), near the border with Hungary, safely on Saturday. The convoy included 24 embassy staff and their family members, among them children; two journalists of public media provider MTVA; two Hungarian civilians; and seven staff of the Kyiv offices of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the Council of Europe (CoE), whose evacuation had been requested, he added.

The convoy is being escorted to the Hungarian border from Ungvár by the Ukrainian police and will be assisted at the crossing by the embassy, Ukrainian border guards and the Hungarian police, he said. Ministry vehicles will bring them to Budapest, he added.

Szijjártó said another big international organization had asked Hungary to assist their staff in Kyiv and provide a haven for them at the embassy there. “We are providing that opportunity, offering help both to Hungarians and non-Hungarians alike,” he added.

Szijjártó said he had met with UN General Assembly President Abdulla Shahid and Under-Secretary-General Rosemary A DiCarlo in New York to ask for support in reestablishing the peace in Ukraine. Both pledged to intercede to bring the Ukrainian and Russian sides to the negotiating table, he added.

In the featured photo: Kyiv. Photo by MTI/AP/Efrem Lukatsky