Hungary’s election-winning party leader, Péter Magyar, has proposed a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, suggesting the talks take place in Ukraine’s Zakarpattia region, where a large Hungarian diaspora resides.
Magyar said he would like to meet Zelensky in early June in the city of Berehove, a symbolic location considered the center of the Hungarian community in the region.
The proposal was announced following Magyar’s meeting with the mayor of Berehove, during which the parties discussed Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine and the challenges faced by ethnic Hungarians living in the country amid the conflict.
“We agree that it is in the interest of Hungarians living in Zakarpattia to restore relations between Hungary and Ukraine. On this basis, I am initiating a meeting with the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, symbolically in the city of Berehove at the beginning of June,” Magyar wrote after the meeting.
He claimed that the aim of the proposed talks is to improve the situation of the Hungarian minority in Zakarpattia and help strengthen bilateral relations between the two countries following a period of strained ties.
Magyar’s initiative comes after his recent electoral victory, which marked a political shift in Hungary and raised expectations of a potential reset in relations with Kyiv.
Image source: Mtavari Arkhi
