Hungarian foreign minister urges OSCE to send mission to Zakarpattia region

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of Hungary Péter Szijjártó has asked Head of the OSCE Mission Gent Cakaj to send a special mission to Ukraine’s Zakarpattia region due to searches of representatives of Hungarian national minorities.

Szijjártó wrote about this on his Facebook page following a phone call with Cakaj on Tuesday, December 1, Ukrinform reports.

The Hungarian foreign minister also noted that he would initiate consultations on further blocking Ukraine's membership in NATO.

As Ukrinform previously reported, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) carried out authorized searches of functionaries of one of the local charity funds in Zakarpattia region.

During the searches, law enforcement officers found a number of printed materials that popularize the so-called "Great Hungary" and the creation of ethnic autonomy in Zakarpattia region.

On November 25, Ukraine's Ambassador to Hungary Liubov Nepop was summoned to the Hungarian Foreign Ministry after Hungary’s ministerial commissioner István Grezsa was denied entry to Ukraine on November 24.

The day before, Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that Ukraine had banned two high-ranking Hungarian officials from entering its territory because of their campaigning in Zakarpattia region during the electoral process of recent local elections.

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