EU state would be right to seize Ukrainian region, MP says

Hungarian right-winger Laszlo Toroczkai said it should be done in case Ukraine loses its statehood out of conflict with Russia

Hungary should seize Ukraine’s westernmost Transcarpathia region in case the country ceases to exist as a result of its conflict with Russia, right-wing lawmaker Laszlo Toroczkai has suggested. The leader of political party ‘Our Homeland Movement’ was referring to territory that was once a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and fell under Soviet control after World War II.

Transcarpathia remained a part of modern Ukraine after the dissolution of the USSR in 1991, retaining a considerable minority of ethnic Hungarians. Budapest has repeatedly criticized Kiev over what it has described as discrimination against this ethnic group, especially in terms of access to school education in their native language. 

Speaking on Saturday, Toroczkai said: “If this war ends up with Ukraine losing its statehood, because this is also on the cards, then as the only Hungarian party taking this position, let me signal that we lay claim to Transcarpathia,” according to Reuters. 

Fellow right-wingers from several other European nations, including a representative of the Alternative for Germany (AFD) party, reportedly greeted Toroczkai suggestion with applause. 

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Meanwhile, Romania’s Antena 3 CNN TV channel reported that Claudiu Tarziu, a lawmaker from the right-wing Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) party, had recently also called for the annexation of part of Ukraine. 

“We are at a crossroads… We will not be truly sovereign until we reintegrate the Romanian state within its natural borders,” he reportedly stated. 

“Northern Bucovina cannot be forgotten! Southern Bessarabia cannot be forgotten… everything that was and is of the Romanian nation must return to the borders of the same state,” the politician allegedly asserted, referring to the Ukrainian region and to Moldova.

Back in September 2022, former Romanian Foreign Minister Andrei Marga, too, claimed that “Ukraine exists within unnatural borders.” The ex-minister suggested at the time that Kiev “should cede Transcarpathia to Hungary, Galicia to Poland, Bukovina to Romania, Donbass and Crimea to Russia.”

Ukraine is home to around 150,000 ethnic Romanians and more than 250,000 Moldovans.

Since the start of the conflict between Kiev and Moscow, several Russian politicians have claimed that neighboring countries, including Poland, have plans to annex parts of Ukraine.