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June 20 () –
The Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Péter Szijjártó, has corrected the Kiev authorities on Tuesday by stating that they have had nothing to do with the handover by Russia of eleven Ukrainian citizens of Hungarian origin and has stressed that these people are fully free.
“As for the eleven prisoners of war, I think the good news is that they are free,” Szijjártó said during a session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe when questioned by the Ukrainian delegation.
Szijjártó has explained that the Hungarian State did not mediate or participate in the negotiations to free these eleven people, but that it was the Russian Orthodox Church and other religious organizations who did so, according to the newspaper ‘Magyar Hírlap.
“These people were released, they are free people, they can move freely around Hungary, they can do whatever they want, if they want to contact the Ukrainian authorities, they can do it freely, I guarantee it,” he stressed.
Szijjártó has held an intense debate with Yuri Kamelchuk, representative of the Hungarian delegation in the Assembly of the Council of Europe, who has reproached him for Hungary not joining the sanctions against Russia or blocking European Union funds to finance Russia. the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
In response, Szijjártó recalled that Ukraine maintains one of the largest Hungarian banking entities –with Russian capital– on a list of sponsors of this war. “The only thing we ask to approve these funds is to remove this bank from that list. It’s simple,” said the head of Foreign Affairs.
On the other hand, it has also stressed that “the Hungarian people are not responsible for this war” and therefore they will not allow them to pay the price. “When it comes to the security of energy supply, we will never agree to sanctions that endanger this,” he concluded.
