Ukraine “has no grounds” to expel the Hungarian consul serving in the Transcarpathian town of Beregszász (Berehove), and Hungary will retaliate in kind should the Ukrainian government move to do so, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said at a press conference on a different subject in Moscow on Wednesday.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin has said he would not rule out expelling the Hungarian consul from the country after hidden camera footage showing the diplomat conducting a Hungarian citizenship oath-taking ceremony for Ukrainian citizens at the consulate appeared online. Szijjártó reacted by condemning what he called “the Ukrainian leadership’s attempt to intimidate the ethnic Hungarian community in Transcarpathia”.
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The consul breached no international, Ukrainian or Hungarian law, he said. Kiev has “ruined the good relations” between the two countries with measures targeting the Hungarian minorities in Ukraine, Szijjártó said.
Klimkin said on Wednesday that Ukraine would send a diplomatic note to Hungary on Thursday, expelling the consul from Ukraine.
via MTI
featured image: Szijjártó at the press conference in Moscow; via MTI