EU state’s FM receives Ukrainian death threat

Hungary should “start making a coffin” for Peter Szijjarto, the message reportedly read

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto received a death threat ahead of an upcoming visit to Ukraine, he told a press conference on Tuesday. According to Hungarian media, the culprits promised to give him an “explosive welcome.”

Szijjarto will travel to the city of Uzhgorod next Monday to meet his Ukrainian counterpart, Dmitry Kuleba. The Hungarian diplomat said last week that he will bring a "strong delegation” with him to discuss the plight of ethnic Hungarians in Uzhgorod and the surrounding region of Transcarpathia, whose language rights have been restricted by Kiev over the last decade.

Speaking to reporters in Brussels on Tuesday, Szijjarto said that a threatening message had been sent to Hungary’s embassy in Ukraine a day earlier.

Hungarian news site Index published the text of the message, which read: “Hungarians, we hate your government, which continues to do everything to make us lose the war. Do you think that your minister will just come to us after the attacks on Ukraine?”

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”We don’t think so. On January 29, [Szijjarto’s delegation] can expect an explosive welcome. An armored train will not save you. We recommend that you place an order with a funeral home so that they can start making the coffin for Szijjarto to fit his height. God forgives, but Ukrainians do not.”

The message was written in Ukrainian and sent to the embassy via email, Index reported. Szijjarto said that whoever wrote the message did so with the clear aim of casting a shadow over the meeting of foreign ministers next Monday and preventing it from taking place.”

The threat will not deter Szijjarto from visiting Uzhgorod, Hungarian State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Tamas Menczer wrote on social media on Tuesday.

"Those who think that the Hungarian foreign minister is scared, they don’t know Peter Szijjarto,” Menczer wrote. “Pressure and threats only make us stronger.”

Szijjarto and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban have repeatedly called for a ceasefire in Ukraine and peace talks between Moscow and Kiev, with both men arguing that Ukraine cannot possibly hope to defeat Russia on the battlefield. This position, as well as Budapest’s opposition to sanctions on Russia and blocking of EU military aid to Ukraine, has seen Hungary vilified in Kiev and threatened with sanctions by its EU allies. 

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"Those who think that they will break us with threats and pressure, they have no idea about the Hungarians, they do not know us,” Menczer declared, adding: “We still want an immediate, unconditional ceasefire, peace talks and peace! There is no solution on the battlefield, there are only dead people.”

Szijjarto said that Ukrainian authorities have assured him that all appropriate security measures will be taken during his visit.