BUDAPEST, March 4 (Reuters) – Two ethnic Hungarian prisoners of war will be freed by Russia, Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Wednesday in a statement after meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow.
Szijjarto travelled to Moscow a day after Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban held a phone call with Putin where they discussed the situation in the Middle East, Ukraine and the availability of crude oil and natural gas for Hungary.
Orban’s government has made Russia’s war on Ukraine a key topic in his campaign for the April 12 parliamentary election, adding to tensions between Budapest and Kyiv.
Szijjarto said earlier on Wednesday in a broadcast on his Facebook page that two ethnic Hungarian prisoners of war have recently asked Hungary for help.
“I hope that after our talks more people will fly home on the plane than who came in this direction,” Szijjarto said.
Ukraine is home to around 150,000 ethnic Hungarians, most of them in the Transcarpathia region. Orban’s government and Kyiv have long clashed over the community’s language rights.
Orban’s government has also accused Kyiv of conscripting ethnic Hungarians, who Budapest said should not have been called up. Last Friday the foreign minister summoned Kyiv’s ambassador to Budapest to protest the conscription of two men.
Hungary’s Orban has maintained warm relations with Moscow even after the start of the war in Ukraine, and is not willing to give up its purchases of Russian oil and gas, which has led to tensions with the European Union. Last month Hungary said that it will block the European Union’s next package of sanctions against Russia as well as a 90 billion euro ($105 billion) EU loan for Ukraine to fund its defence against Russia until shipments on the Druzhba pipeline resume.
(Reporting by Anita Komuves; Editing by Sharon Singleton)
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