President of the Republic Katalin Novák is paying a visit to Ukraine, which the Hungarian media has described as somewhat unexpected. Novák travelled to the war-torn country on Monday, and is taking part at the meeting of the informal Crimea Platform summit being held today, at the invitation of President Zelenskyy.
On the first day of her trip, she visited Beregszász (Berehove) in Transcarpathia, to meet with the local ethnic Hungarian community.
In the early morning of Wednesday, she laid a wreath at the memorial site for those who died in the Russo-Ukrainian war.
After the wreath-laying, she visited the Centre for the Protection of Children’s Rights, where she met with Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian parliament’s human rights ombudsman.
The Ukrainian ombudsman informed Katalin Novák about the process of repatriating and rehabilitating children who were taken to Russia from the occupied territories. The Hungarian president reminded that Hungary is conducting its largest humanitarian action in history, with a particular focus on providing vacationing opportunities for Ukrainian children.
Dmytro Lubinets expressed his gratitude to the President for all the assistance that Hungary has been providing to Ukraine since the outbreak of the war. ‘A friend is known in times of trouble,’ he said, adding that Hungary was among the first to accept tens and hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees and provided them with proper care, for which every Hungarian is deserving of thanks.
During the meeting,
the President raised issues related to the language use and educational rights of the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia.
In her response to that, the Ukrainian ombudsman told the reporters that there is no problem with communication with the Hungarian side and that ‘everyone should take care of the rights of their own citizens.’
Following her talks with the ombudsman, Katalin Novák visited settlements near Kyiv that were directly affected by armed combat in the first weeks of the war. The head of state participated in a ceremony in the village of Moshchun commemorating Ukrainian soldiers who died in the defence of the capital. After that, she visited the town of Bucha, where dozens of victims were found in mass graves after the withdrawal of the Russians. A memorial site was established in the garden of the local Orthodox church, which Novák also paid her respects.
In the early afternoon, the president visited the village of Zahal’tsi, where, with the involvement of Hungarian government support and under the coordination of the Hungarian Interchurch Aid, the reconstruction of a preschool and school building significantly damaged in the fighting is currently underway. Until the completion of the work, children are being cared for in a modern preschool with a capacity for fifty people, which was inaugurated this spring, also thanks to the assistance of the Hungarian charity organisation.
László Lehel, President and CEO of the Hungarian Interchurch Aid, stated that the organisation
is currently helping over half a million people in Ukraine through various programmes.
Last year, it allocated more than ten billion forints for humanitarian aid, thirty per cent of which comes from state funding, while the rest comes from the organisation’s fundraising efforts and grants.
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Source: Hungarian Conservative/MTI
