The Coordination Headquarters for Prisoners has issued a strong statement regarding the transfer of Ukrainian citizens to Hungary by the Russian Federation. According to representatives of the headquarters, this move bears the hallmarks of a deliberate provocation aimed at destabilizing relations between European countries and undermining international law.
This is reported by Kyiv24
International Reaction to the Transfer of Prisoners
The office emphasized that such actions by Russia constitute a direct violation of the norms of the Geneva Conventions and international legal obligations. The transfer of Ukrainian military prisoners without the involvement of Ukraine can be regarded as participation in unprovoked aggression against the Ukrainian state. The Coordination Headquarters noted that such manipulations with people’s lives could serve as grounds for appropriate decisions by international judicial bodies.
“Its goal is to once again attack the Geneva Conventions and international law, as well as to attempt to worsen the relations between two European countries within the framework of Russia’s hybrid aggression against Europe.”
Ukraine’s Position and Demands to the Parties
The Coordination Headquarters called on all parties involved in the transfer of prisoners to refrain from unlawful actions and not to use Ukrainian prisoners of war as instruments of political pressure. Russia and Hungary are demanded to provide complete information about the health status of the transferred Ukrainian citizens, as well as to allow authorized representatives of Ukraine to visit the prisoners.
The headquarters added that it is continuously working to bring home all Ukrainian citizens who are in Russian captivity, including individuals with dual citizenship. It was also reminded that in 2023, Russia, without agreement with Ukraine, already transferred 11 Ukrainian citizens to Hungary.
On March 4, Russian President Vladimir Putin stated that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán asked him to consider the possibility of releasing Hungarian citizens who ended up in Russian captivity (referring to residents of Transcarpathia with both Ukrainian and Hungarian citizenship). Putin referred to these individuals as “forcibly mobilized,” but provided no evidence and announced that he decided to release two of them, handing them over to Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine welcomed the release of two Ukrainian prisoners of Hungarian descent but emphasized the unacceptability of political manipulations regarding the issue of prisoners of war.