'Not my fault': it's definitely about the time for Ukraine to do something about names of its villages - otherwise I'm going to continue 'massacring' their spelling at every opportunity... ;-)
Makes me recall messages from the early days of the invasion about "fighting near Ivankiv". There are at least 3 places with that name near Kyiv, all in different directions... :)
My favourite remains Bilohorivka.... somebody counted about 30 of them...
....and that's said not to be the 'record': there should be exactly 105 places with the same name....which is currently (though as usually) escaping me....
Would be even better if there were any Belogorovkas in Russia (since they would definitely use Russian varant of the name for internal communications). Pity I can't find any :(
"the 128th is home-based in Melitupol" - I think it was a misunderstanding somewere in Ukrainian press or blogs, because 128th home base is Mukacheve, Zakarpattia (that's why they are Mountain Assault and have an edelweiss with Carpatian hatchets on their emblem). Melitopol had to be the operational base at least for one of their battalions, not the Brigade's home base.
AFAIK, it was 'mobilised in Melitopol', and still working up at the local base at the time of the Russian all-out invasion (indeed, it had only different elements 'in working condition' by the time the Russians reached the town).
Equipment-wise - very likely, yes, brought from old Melitopol military storages. Personnel-wise - these guys are, judging by accents from their footages, still mostly from Carpatian region.
The passport of a citizen of Hungary does not give the right to citizens of Ukraine to cross the border, and is an invalid document for them in this process
one can just take an actual passport of any other country and pass with it through the border. The border guards can't force you to present a Ukrainian passport, if you already have a passport or residency permit from another country.
You are not right. If you try to use foreign passport for leaving Ukraine, then such passport won’t have the record in the immigration database that the passport was used for entering the Ukraine earlier. After the brief on-site investigation the immigration employee can figure out that the person has a Ukrainian passport as well. In such a case the crossing a border during the war time should be done with Ukrainian passport, which means that the person won’t be able to leave Ukraine.
Yeah no. Based on your other details such as date of birth and name, UA border guards would immediately identify that you also have a UA citizenship and stop you from exiting a country. There’s been documented cases of this happening as some poor suckers did try to pull this off. I believe at the very beginning of the escalation they were not so strict and some could slip through, but later the policy was and is being strictly enforced.
Absolutely, it doesn't matter what rules Ukraine has, this was a transfer of Hungarian citizens from Russia to Hungary. Ukraine has zero say in the matter.
Ukraine doesn't recognize dual citizenship and in the same time Ukrainian border guards have net-based applications to identify both citizens and guests by a shot of their passports, with several seconds. If they found you are neither in guest list nor a citizen - well, you are in trouble immediately.
the circumstances under which they were taken prisoner and under which they were handed over are still unknown. Perhaps they themselves asked for this, saying that they are citizens of Hungary?
Even if they declare themselves as citizens of Ursae minoris b: as 'prisoners of war', they are combatants of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Correspondingly, the authority responsible for them is the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine - and this is to be addressed regarding their status, handing them over to some other authorities etc.
Then the Russians should have given back any and all of foreign volunteers they have captured - instead some of those were killed in captivity.
The Geneva Convention allow positive diversion from the general rules - IF and ONLY those are applied equally. It doesn't allow to cherry pick which nationals have preferential treatments and which haven't.
you do not take into account the level of diplomatic relations between Hungary and the Russian Federation. And talking about the Geneva Convention in this war is generally ridiculous. The commanders of the Azov regiment are in Turkey, and for some reason this does not bother anyone.
The commanders of the Azov are in Turkey because Russia, Ukraine and Turkey officially agreed - right on the base of the Geneva Convention rules - that they will stay there in custody of the Turkish authorities. They are POW even now, were not relieved from the UAF service. It doesn't bother anybody because it was done exactly how the Convention orders.
Level of diplomatic relations can make things happen easier - but right because it is in the scope of the diplomatic relations those have to be done according to the rules. Otherwise comes the well deserved shitstorm.
Oh yes, BTW: if our diplomatic relations are so good, then why was this ruse made through (at least on communication level) the Orthodox Church and not through diplomatic channels? So much so that the spokesman of the government dares to say that the Hungarian government doesn't even have a clue where these people are now, as they are free to go whereever they want to?
“So far, the story looks strange, because we don’t know all the information,” says lawyer Andrey Yakovlev, “Probably these prisoners of war themselves agreed to such conditions. This situation is similar to what happened with the Azov commanders in Turkey. In fact, they are being held in third country to prevent joining the army, which is the main goal of captivity.
Please check it carefully: ethnicity and citizenship doesn't matter. What matters in the case of war are that they were combatants captured while fighting as members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Therefore, the sole authority responsible for them is the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine. No 'Hungarian governemnt' or whatever else.
Correspondingly, the government of 'certain' country - as far as it considers itself 'civilised' and 'abiding to the rules' - should've promptly handed them over to the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine, or any other kind of Ukrainian authorities.
.....instead of playing 'a protector of Hungarians' scams: that can easily land everybody involved (starting with Orban) accused of human trafficking.
Is that behaviour 'worth' a member of the EU/NATO....? Is that what Ukrainians are fighting for, and 'we' are supporting them for? Don't think so.
Re Ukrainian POW Hungary: Some background. Orban plays the peace dove at home and everywhere else (even covered the country with roadside posters, press, tv and social media ads claimin that his opposition is "warmonger"). It hurts his PR badly that the 68th "Carpathian Dragons" Independent TD Battalion of the 101st Independent TD Brigade has a lot of Hungarian soldiers (from the Beregovo-Munkacevo-Uzhgorod region) among them Ferenc "Fegyir" Sandor professor. He get some publicity in last April, when he kept their lectures from the trenches via zoom amd then later on 23rd October when the unit posed with the flag of the 1956 revolution and the Ukrainian colors together. That inspired a few guys to contact them to help them. Since then seven shipment of drones, thermal cameras, ballistic vests, warm clothings, etc. and of course Hungarian foods were sent in about 270k Euro value. They send lists what their unit needs (weapons excluded), and the Kárpátaljai Sárkányellátó (Zakarpathskye Dragonsupplier) buys and ship to them.
Now this gets a pretty widespread coverage in Hungary and abroad. This undermines both of his "Protector of the Hungarians" image and his best help is to bow to the russians BS. THAT's why he tried to stage a "saving POWs" show with the help of his great FSB friend Kyrill patriarch. He needed something to show that "I'm the saviour of the poor Hungarian soldiers who were forced to fight". That there were not a single person in the government who could tell, that hey, there are legal rules about it, it's not a deal in the back room of a carpet trader in the Cashbah - well, that's the level of our government now.
Addendum: The Ukrainian ambassador in Budapest was called back about half a year ago. The Ukrainians found a new person to the post - Ferenc "Fegyir" Sandor. Somehow our completely independent head of state (who plays the "good cop" in the international relations) has not been able to find the time to sign his agrement since April. I wonder if she does it ever.
Hi Tom. Today Genstab reported that 35 drones were shot down. Can you comment on that? What happened, why so many? Before we were able to down just a few per day.
Concerning the Hungarian provocation. Some part of the Ukrainian citizens in Zakharpattya region were eager to obtain Hungarian passport firstly because of bigger pensions and the possibility to become a EU citizen and secondly because Hungary gives money to the farmers to stimulate agricultural production. In Ukraine double citizenship is prohibited. Ethnic Hungarians have their schools, their cultural center and even their university in Beregovo, a nice town famous for its Tokai vine and its baths with mineral water.
I'm pretty sure there were more direct monetary incentives in play. There were tens of thousands of newly registered voters near the Ukrainian border, often dozens "living" in the same one room house. In some of the districts voter populations grew by 5-10%, while the average numbers in other parts of the country shrank by 1%+. Most of those people only show up to vote every 4 years.
Oh God no. Berehove/Beregszász (I’m curious why you are using Beregovo, which is transcription from the Russian name, Береговой of the city, not the Ukrainian one) doesn’t even come close to producing Tokaji. They make some dubious wine there and they do put the Tokaji sticker on it, but they really shouldn’t. It’s not part of the wine region.
So you say “ethnic Hungarians have (...) even their university in Beregovo (sic!)” It’s too bad from 25 April 2019 Ukraine banned higher education in any language that is not Ukrainian or English, so that institution has been working illegally for over 4 years now(!).
Don’t believe me? Have a look at the history of article 48, paragraphs (2), (3) and (4) of the Law on Higher Education. Both the original (July 2014) and the modified (April 2019) versions are available on the Rada’s website.
I have been to Beregovo in May and saw this university with my own eyes. As to Hungarian anti-Ukrainian propaganda we are sick and tired of it and we hope EU will be sick and tired of Hungary as soon as possible.
Can you factually refute anything that I’ve written above?
What the current Hungarian government is doing is wrong and everyone should be sick and tired of it, that I agree with.
However this doesn’t make your highly discriminatory and anti-minority legislation practices any good or justified.
Calling Ukraine out on this out of the blue in the current situation is also wrong, that I also agree with.
However when anti-Hungarian propaganda gets squirted out that makes it look like Ukraine is like the second Åland Island or South Tyrol with regard to minority protection rights, I will call that out and call it a lie. We have been listening to this for many decades long before the war began, and believe me when I say it: we are sick and tired of it too.
Before going any further I’ll restate a few important things. I know you couldn’t care less, but there may be readers out there that do:
1. I fully condemn the unprovoked and cruel military aggression of the Russian Federation against the Ukrainian people.
2. I condemn the actions of the current Hungarian government, that are not in the best interest of either Hungary, Ukraine or the Hungarian minority in Ukraine.
3. Being a victim of aggression does not give the right to do whatever the hell one pleases.
I think you might have spent too much time around Russian trolls so that you’ve inadvertently picked up their style. Why do I say that?
Classic examples include using a straw man argument (I have never questioned the existence of the university, but said it’s currently working illegally and current laws do not allow for higher education to be conducted in any other language than Ukrainian or English in Ukraine.), whataboutism (immediately changing the subject to education in Hungary) or simply repeating the same broad statement (“official lies”, “propaganda”) without pointing to any specific examples that could be challenged.
Now about your first question, because you haven’t answered mine, I’ll reply with not one but two questions: how many towns or villages in Hungary have over at least 10% of Ukrainian speakers? How many of those expressed their wishes to have access to education in Ukrainian?
As to your second question I am a proud native of Zakarpattia, and have been to Berehove/Beregszász multiple times. Not sure if you’ve been there at all, because you keep using the Russian transcription of the town’s name. And still haven’t specified what official lies I’ve reproduced.
Speaking of lies, a half truth is still a lie. Having a uni that could be closed any day based on breaching the law is like someone giving you a car without a license plate and any chance of getting one yourself.
Talking about Hungarian schools in Berehove/Beregszász is also a half truth. Your country’s laws will require that by grade 12 all EU minority language schools will have to teach 60% of their curriculum in Ukrainian starting from September this year. Where does one draw the line? If most of the time Hungarian is not used in a school, can you still call it “their school”? We had our minority schools even during Soviet times. Even Stalin, who was as much of a great friend of Ukrainians as Hungarians, who anecdotically once said that the Hungarian question is only a question of railway carriages (that will transport them to forced labour camps not dissimilar to the Gulag), and who orchestrated the Holodomor, even he left the Hungarian primary schools alone. For over 1.5 decades into Ukraine’s independence (which was recognised 3rd in the world by Hungary after Poland and Canada) the schools were left alone. Why all of a sudden in 2017-2019 it suddenly became so important to change this? What has the Hungarian minority in Zakarpattia done to Ukraine to deserve this?
The loss of "historical lands" is the consequence of the wrong choice of Hungary in WW I and WW II. So keep quiet about Beregovo which you evidently left wanting to be a citizen of the EU after the exam in Hungarian. So the main cause of advocating more and more Hungarian language (which is difficult to study) is the desire to obtain the EU citizenship? pensions from Hungary etc. Maybe EU at last will come to the conclusion about the country constantly being on the wrong side and your passion to the Hungarian will become totally platonic.
Hello Tom, I have a question: What is it, in your opinion, this "something" related to electronic warfare? Do you think this is a good sign of ZSU at least starting to try to deal with the Lancet, and UAVs in general, problem?
Sounds good enough. Will hardly shut up all the pro-Russian crowd repeating the "lost of Ukrainian casualties, no major progress" talking point but seems Ukraine is doing everything mostly right to win the real war, and leaving the Russian sympathizers to win the imaginary one in their own heads.
Seems we'll have to be more patient and wait and see how Russia fares once the tanks, helicopters, artilery and experienced troops are further depleted.
I am wondering if the Hungarian government understands that what they are doing is a a human trafficking (they´ve exchanged and held Ukrainian combatants without Ukraine). Good example of EU and NATO member .....
There’s been some speculations that Russia might have “freed” these people legally before they were handed over to Hungary which would have made them technically not a POW from the perspective of international law (the Geneva Convention in particular). Not a lawyer so don’t know how plausible this speculation is.
yes, that makes sense and very "russian style" - to make up the crimes with some "legal procedures" that only lawful from their point of view, but it doesn´t change the facts... People are kidnapped basically, with no phones, no connections with relatives, embassy etc.
The POWs arrived to Hungary by the russian orthodox church, the middleman was patriarch Kirill LOL. Maybe Orban "O1G" Viktor thought that this sounds good among the rightists of the country. As fas as I know the hungarians asked for this(said the russian church). The POWs were born as hungarian minority I think, not sure but they were recruited from that part of Ukraine.
"Pyalykhatky" - Pyatykhatky
'Not my fault': it's definitely about the time for Ukraine to do something about names of its villages - otherwise I'm going to continue 'massacring' their spelling at every opportunity... ;-)
Simply write Oleksandrivka or Mikolaivka. 95% sure there will be one around.
Makes me recall messages from the early days of the invasion about "fighting near Ivankiv". There are at least 3 places with that name near Kyiv, all in different directions... :)
My favourite remains Bilohorivka.... somebody counted about 30 of them...
....and that's said not to be the 'record': there should be exactly 105 places with the same name....which is currently (though as usually) escaping me....
Ok, Bilohorivka = Weißbergdorf :)
They just put operational deception to a nyew level. Removing the road signs or turning them to the wrong direction is so outdated.
- We are under attack from the direction of Bilohorivka!
- In which oblast?
Would be even better if there were any Belogorovkas in Russia (since they would definitely use Russian varant of the name for internal communications). Pity I can't find any :(
Just translate them. E.g. Pyatykhatky = Fünfhütten. Just imagine how much fun it will be for everyone to decipher your reports.
Yeah. Transliteration from Cyrillic to Latin is a bitch.
лол
Thanks a lot
"the 128th is home-based in Melitupol" - I think it was a misunderstanding somewere in Ukrainian press or blogs, because 128th home base is Mukacheve, Zakarpattia (that's why they are Mountain Assault and have an edelweiss with Carpatian hatchets on their emblem). Melitopol had to be the operational base at least for one of their battalions, not the Brigade's home base.
AFAIK, it was 'mobilised in Melitopol', and still working up at the local base at the time of the Russian all-out invasion (indeed, it had only different elements 'in working condition' by the time the Russians reached the town).
Equipment-wise - very likely, yes, brought from old Melitopol military storages. Personnel-wise - these guys are, judging by accents from their footages, still mostly from Carpatian region.
Tom, these 11 prisoners have 99% Hungarian passports and were mobilized in Transcarpathia
If they were dual passport citizens, they could have easily moved out of Ukraine at any time.
Zakaraptska oblast is part of Ukraine.
The passport of a citizen of Hungary does not give the right to citizens of Ukraine to cross the border, and is an invalid document for them in this process
No, you're incorrect here.
you can just leave a link here, at least indirectly confirming that men living in Transcarpathia and having dual citizenship can freely leave Ukraine.
one can just take an actual passport of any other country and pass with it through the border. The border guards can't force you to present a Ukrainian passport, if you already have a passport or residency permit from another country.
You are not right. If you try to use foreign passport for leaving Ukraine, then such passport won’t have the record in the immigration database that the passport was used for entering the Ukraine earlier. After the brief on-site investigation the immigration employee can figure out that the person has a Ukrainian passport as well. In such a case the crossing a border during the war time should be done with Ukrainian passport, which means that the person won’t be able to leave Ukraine.
Yeah no. Based on your other details such as date of birth and name, UA border guards would immediately identify that you also have a UA citizenship and stop you from exiting a country. There’s been documented cases of this happening as some poor suckers did try to pull this off. I believe at the very beginning of the escalation they were not so strict and some could slip through, but later the policy was and is being strictly enforced.
Absolutely, it doesn't matter what rules Ukraine has, this was a transfer of Hungarian citizens from Russia to Hungary. Ukraine has zero say in the matter.
Ukraine doesn't recognize dual citizenship and in the same time Ukrainian border guards have net-based applications to identify both citizens and guests by a shot of their passports, with several seconds. If they found you are neither in guest list nor a citizen - well, you are in trouble immediately.
As the members of any civilised government should know, they are combatants of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. First and foremost.
As such, they should be handed out to the representatives of the government in question.
Of course, such rules are not valid for such like Qussay Bush or Orban...
the circumstances under which they were taken prisoner and under which they were handed over are still unknown. Perhaps they themselves asked for this, saying that they are citizens of Hungary?
Even if they declare themselves as citizens of Ursae minoris b: as 'prisoners of war', they are combatants of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Correspondingly, the authority responsible for them is the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine - and this is to be addressed regarding their status, handing them over to some other authorities etc.
Then the Russians should have given back any and all of foreign volunteers they have captured - instead some of those were killed in captivity.
The Geneva Convention allow positive diversion from the general rules - IF and ONLY those are applied equally. It doesn't allow to cherry pick which nationals have preferential treatments and which haven't.
you do not take into account the level of diplomatic relations between Hungary and the Russian Federation. And talking about the Geneva Convention in this war is generally ridiculous. The commanders of the Azov regiment are in Turkey, and for some reason this does not bother anyone.
The commanders of the Azov are in Turkey because Russia, Ukraine and Turkey officially agreed - right on the base of the Geneva Convention rules - that they will stay there in custody of the Turkish authorities. They are POW even now, were not relieved from the UAF service. It doesn't bother anybody because it was done exactly how the Convention orders.
Level of diplomatic relations can make things happen easier - but right because it is in the scope of the diplomatic relations those have to be done according to the rules. Otherwise comes the well deserved shitstorm.
Oh yes, BTW: if our diplomatic relations are so good, then why was this ruse made through (at least on communication level) the Orthodox Church and not through diplomatic channels? So much so that the spokesman of the government dares to say that the Hungarian government doesn't even have a clue where these people are now, as they are free to go whereever they want to?
“So far, the story looks strange, because we don’t know all the information,” says lawyer Andrey Yakovlev, “Probably these prisoners of war themselves agreed to such conditions. This situation is similar to what happened with the Azov commanders in Turkey. In fact, they are being held in third country to prevent joining the army, which is the main goal of captivity.
Here's the 'Rules of War', by the International Red Cross:
https://info.icrc.org/en/ihl-decision
Please check it carefully: ethnicity and citizenship doesn't matter. What matters in the case of war are that they were combatants captured while fighting as members of the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
Therefore, the sole authority responsible for them is the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine. No 'Hungarian governemnt' or whatever else.
Correspondingly, the government of 'certain' country - as far as it considers itself 'civilised' and 'abiding to the rules' - should've promptly handed them over to the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine, or any other kind of Ukrainian authorities.
.....instead of playing 'a protector of Hungarians' scams: that can easily land everybody involved (starting with Orban) accused of human trafficking.
Is that behaviour 'worth' a member of the EU/NATO....? Is that what Ukrainians are fighting for, and 'we' are supporting them for? Don't think so.
Thank you for the update!
Re Ukrainian POW Hungary: Some background. Orban plays the peace dove at home and everywhere else (even covered the country with roadside posters, press, tv and social media ads claimin that his opposition is "warmonger"). It hurts his PR badly that the 68th "Carpathian Dragons" Independent TD Battalion of the 101st Independent TD Brigade has a lot of Hungarian soldiers (from the Beregovo-Munkacevo-Uzhgorod region) among them Ferenc "Fegyir" Sandor professor. He get some publicity in last April, when he kept their lectures from the trenches via zoom amd then later on 23rd October when the unit posed with the flag of the 1956 revolution and the Ukrainian colors together. That inspired a few guys to contact them to help them. Since then seven shipment of drones, thermal cameras, ballistic vests, warm clothings, etc. and of course Hungarian foods were sent in about 270k Euro value. They send lists what their unit needs (weapons excluded), and the Kárpátaljai Sárkányellátó (Zakarpathskye Dragonsupplier) buys and ship to them.
Now this gets a pretty widespread coverage in Hungary and abroad. This undermines both of his "Protector of the Hungarians" image and his best help is to bow to the russians BS. THAT's why he tried to stage a "saving POWs" show with the help of his great FSB friend Kyrill patriarch. He needed something to show that "I'm the saviour of the poor Hungarian soldiers who were forced to fight". That there were not a single person in the government who could tell, that hey, there are legal rules about it, it's not a deal in the back room of a carpet trader in the Cashbah - well, that's the level of our government now.
Addendum: The Ukrainian ambassador in Budapest was called back about half a year ago. The Ukrainians found a new person to the post - Ferenc "Fegyir" Sandor. Somehow our completely independent head of state (who plays the "good cop" in the international relations) has not been able to find the time to sign his agrement since April. I wonder if she does it ever.
The same is with the Rumanian right wing nationalists. Who at the same time are the fiercest antagonists of the Hungarian minority in Transsylvania.
The Hungarian minority in Transilvania has Hungarian passports and votes for Viktor Orban, and probably they will do so as long as he breathes :D
As a fellow Hungarian I thank you for the writeup, it explains the situation very well!
Thank you for the explanation!
Hi Tom. Today Genstab reported that 35 drones were shot down. Can you comment on that? What happened, why so many? Before we were able to down just a few per day.
I like the Gepard news. Hope there is enough ammunition...
Concerning the Hungarian provocation. Some part of the Ukrainian citizens in Zakharpattya region were eager to obtain Hungarian passport firstly because of bigger pensions and the possibility to become a EU citizen and secondly because Hungary gives money to the farmers to stimulate agricultural production. In Ukraine double citizenship is prohibited. Ethnic Hungarians have their schools, their cultural center and even their university in Beregovo, a nice town famous for its Tokai vine and its baths with mineral water.
I'm pretty sure there were more direct monetary incentives in play. There were tens of thousands of newly registered voters near the Ukrainian border, often dozens "living" in the same one room house. In some of the districts voter populations grew by 5-10%, while the average numbers in other parts of the country shrank by 1%+. Most of those people only show up to vote every 4 years.
https://atlatszo.hu/adat/2022/04/20/kodde-valtak-szabolcs-ukrajnai-fantomszavazoi-a-haboru-miatt-elmaradt-a-tomeges-buszoztatas-a-hataron/
Oh God no. Berehove/Beregszász (I’m curious why you are using Beregovo, which is transcription from the Russian name, Береговой of the city, not the Ukrainian one) doesn’t even come close to producing Tokaji. They make some dubious wine there and they do put the Tokaji sticker on it, but they really shouldn’t. It’s not part of the wine region.
Damn autocorrect! I meant Берегово, not Береговой!
So you say “ethnic Hungarians have (...) even their university in Beregovo (sic!)” It’s too bad from 25 April 2019 Ukraine banned higher education in any language that is not Ukrainian or English, so that institution has been working illegally for over 4 years now(!).
Don’t believe me? Have a look at the history of article 48, paragraphs (2), (3) and (4) of the Law on Higher Education. Both the original (July 2014) and the modified (April 2019) versions are available on the Rada’s website.
I have been to Beregovo in May and saw this university with my own eyes. As to Hungarian anti-Ukrainian propaganda we are sick and tired of it and we hope EU will be sick and tired of Hungary as soon as possible.
Can you factually refute anything that I’ve written above?
What the current Hungarian government is doing is wrong and everyone should be sick and tired of it, that I agree with.
However this doesn’t make your highly discriminatory and anti-minority legislation practices any good or justified.
Calling Ukraine out on this out of the blue in the current situation is also wrong, that I also agree with.
However when anti-Hungarian propaganda gets squirted out that makes it look like Ukraine is like the second Åland Island or South Tyrol with regard to minority protection rights, I will call that out and call it a lie. We have been listening to this for many decades long before the war began, and believe me when I say it: we are sick and tired of it too.
1. Are there in Hungary any schools where children are taught in language other than Hungarian?
2. Have you ever been to Ukraine and to Beregovo in particular or you are only reproducing Hungarian official lies?
Before going any further I’ll restate a few important things. I know you couldn’t care less, but there may be readers out there that do:
1. I fully condemn the unprovoked and cruel military aggression of the Russian Federation against the Ukrainian people.
2. I condemn the actions of the current Hungarian government, that are not in the best interest of either Hungary, Ukraine or the Hungarian minority in Ukraine.
3. Being a victim of aggression does not give the right to do whatever the hell one pleases.
I think you might have spent too much time around Russian trolls so that you’ve inadvertently picked up their style. Why do I say that?
Classic examples include using a straw man argument (I have never questioned the existence of the university, but said it’s currently working illegally and current laws do not allow for higher education to be conducted in any other language than Ukrainian or English in Ukraine.), whataboutism (immediately changing the subject to education in Hungary) or simply repeating the same broad statement (“official lies”, “propaganda”) without pointing to any specific examples that could be challenged.
Now about your first question, because you haven’t answered mine, I’ll reply with not one but two questions: how many towns or villages in Hungary have over at least 10% of Ukrainian speakers? How many of those expressed their wishes to have access to education in Ukrainian?
As to your second question I am a proud native of Zakarpattia, and have been to Berehove/Beregszász multiple times. Not sure if you’ve been there at all, because you keep using the Russian transcription of the town’s name. And still haven’t specified what official lies I’ve reproduced.
Speaking of lies, a half truth is still a lie. Having a uni that could be closed any day based on breaching the law is like someone giving you a car without a license plate and any chance of getting one yourself.
Talking about Hungarian schools in Berehove/Beregszász is also a half truth. Your country’s laws will require that by grade 12 all EU minority language schools will have to teach 60% of their curriculum in Ukrainian starting from September this year. Where does one draw the line? If most of the time Hungarian is not used in a school, can you still call it “their school”? We had our minority schools even during Soviet times. Even Stalin, who was as much of a great friend of Ukrainians as Hungarians, who anecdotically once said that the Hungarian question is only a question of railway carriages (that will transport them to forced labour camps not dissimilar to the Gulag), and who orchestrated the Holodomor, even he left the Hungarian primary schools alone. For over 1.5 decades into Ukraine’s independence (which was recognised 3rd in the world by Hungary after Poland and Canada) the schools were left alone. Why all of a sudden in 2017-2019 it suddenly became so important to change this? What has the Hungarian minority in Zakarpattia done to Ukraine to deserve this?
The loss of "historical lands" is the consequence of the wrong choice of Hungary in WW I and WW II. So keep quiet about Beregovo which you evidently left wanting to be a citizen of the EU after the exam in Hungarian. So the main cause of advocating more and more Hungarian language (which is difficult to study) is the desire to obtain the EU citizenship? pensions from Hungary etc. Maybe EU at last will come to the conclusion about the country constantly being on the wrong side and your passion to the Hungarian will become totally platonic.
Hello Tom, I have a question: What is it, in your opinion, this "something" related to electronic warfare? Do you think this is a good sign of ZSU at least starting to try to deal with the Lancet, and UAVs in general, problem?
Thank you for your job.
I'm not Tom of course, but I think Tom just means the details about 'something' shouldn't necessary become public at this stage.
Actually you're right :)
Wow! The more positive report! Considering how cautious you usually are - it is a good sign.
Thank you!
Mind, please: I'm never 'optimistic' or 'pessimistic'.
Simply 'realistic'.
I used word "cautious" intentionally.
;-)
Good News all in all.
Thanks again, Tom
Sounds good enough. Will hardly shut up all the pro-Russian crowd repeating the "lost of Ukrainian casualties, no major progress" talking point but seems Ukraine is doing everything mostly right to win the real war, and leaving the Russian sympathizers to win the imaginary one in their own heads.
Seems we'll have to be more patient and wait and see how Russia fares once the tanks, helicopters, artilery and experienced troops are further depleted.
Thank you for update, Tom. God bless ZSU.
I am wondering if the Hungarian government understands that what they are doing is a a human trafficking (they´ve exchanged and held Ukrainian combatants without Ukraine). Good example of EU and NATO member .....
There’s been some speculations that Russia might have “freed” these people legally before they were handed over to Hungary which would have made them technically not a POW from the perspective of international law (the Geneva Convention in particular). Not a lawyer so don’t know how plausible this speculation is.
yes, that makes sense and very "russian style" - to make up the crimes with some "legal procedures" that only lawful from their point of view, but it doesn´t change the facts... People are kidnapped basically, with no phones, no connections with relatives, embassy etc.
Indeed: nothing else but human trafficking.
The question is: if the rest of the EU and NATO understands that that way too...
>7 HR AGO
Tom, you're an early bird!
...or a very late one. Posted this around the midnight, but set its release at 06.00 ;-)
The POWs arrived to Hungary by the russian orthodox church, the middleman was patriarch Kirill LOL. Maybe Orban "O1G" Viktor thought that this sounds good among the rightists of the country. As fas as I know the hungarians asked for this(said the russian church). The POWs were born as hungarian minority I think, not sure but they were recruited from that part of Ukraine.
https://twitter.com/nexta_tv/status/1671204729135804418?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1671204729135804418%7Ctwgr%5Edf652157cfd99030738a132d471a37aa31bcd2bb%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Finfostart.hu%2Fbelfold%2F2023%2F06%2F21%2Fuj-fejlemeny-a-magyarorszagra-hozott-ukran-hadifoglyok-ugyeben
Nothing of that matters in regards of their legal status.
Actually, the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, Orban etc. - all became involved in human trafficking now.