With the re-election of US President Donald Trump, many people around the world hope that the Russo–Ukrainian war will come to an end soon. However, the current reality is that the bloodshed is still ongoing. In fact, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has just called for Ukraine to lower the conscription age to 18 from the current 25; an opinion he is reportedly not alone in among NATO members.
So, the Hungarian public media traveled to Western Ukraine, Transcarpathia, a region still heavily populated with ethnic Hungarians, to assess the grim realities of everyday life in a war-torn country.
While there has been no armed fighting taking place in this specific region, as the report points out in the beginning, the war’s effects have nevertheless been far-reaching. For example, the city of Ungvár (Uzhhorod) used to have a prominent ethnic Hungarian presence. But since the Russian invasion many Ukrainians have moved to the Western part of the country away from the armed conflict, and the proportion of the ethnically Hungarian population has thus been reduced.
‘There is a popular push for peace, with graffiti and posters calling for an end to the war on display across the city’
Power outages have also been commonplace, the hirado.hu video report says, so much so that by now many businesses have acquired remote generators to power through these outages. There is also a popular push for peace, with graffiti and posters calling for an end to the war on display across the city, while also criticizing the Zelenskyy administration.
After Ungvár, the film crew travelled to Szolyva (Svalyava) to meet the orthopedic doctor in charge of a factory producing prosthetic legs for the soldiers who have lost a limb in the war—one of the reminders of those grim realities of wartime. The factory is being funded by humanitarian aid from the United States. The Hungarian public media has also talked to some of the amputee soldiers coming out of the Eastern frontlines.
‘These men, despite all the horrors of war, have shown incredible persistence and strength. During our visit, they were laughing, telling stories, and speaking of a positive view of the future, even after their lives have changed forever,’ the reporter, who reveals herself to be a native of Transcaprathia herself, described her interactions with them.
Back in Ungvár, the film crew visited the Military Cemetery at Calvary Park. There, hundreds of local men lie who have lost their lives during the war at a premature age.
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