As of June 22, the Ukrainian side has not received access to the Ukrainian prisoners of war in Hungary. They remain isolated due to the Budapest’s actions.

Dmytro Lubinets, the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, said on TV that Ukraine is trying to establish contact with 8 Ukrainian prisoners of war who are kept in Hungary.

‘We know where they are. We do not understand why Ukrainian diplomats have not been allowed to visit them. In fact, they are in isolation. They have a limited circle of communication. The phones they were given to communicate with relatives were taken from them. We know that relatives have come to visit some of them. We do not know how the communication took place’, the ombudsman stated.

11 Ukrainian prisoners of war were brought to Hungary via the mediation of the Russian Orthodox Church. The Ukrainian side learned about the transfer of its citizens to a third country from the media, as the government was not informed about the relevant negotiations between the Hungarian and Russian sides. Currently, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine is demanding that the consul be allowed to visit the prisoners of war who are kept in isolation.

During the discussion at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hungary, Peter Szijarto, stated that Budapest was not involved in the transfer of 11 Ukrainian prisoners of war into their country.

On June 20, the spokesman of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Oleh Nikolenko reported that the Embassy of Ukraine in Budapest managed to bring home three Ukrainian prisoners of war.