Thousands of Ukrainian refugees in Hungary may be left homeless and will be forced to return home due to the Hungarian government’s decision, which came into force, according to which only residents of the regions of Ukraine directly affected by Russian aggression are entitled to state aid.
Budapest considers 13 Ukrainian regions where battles are (or were) fought to be affected: Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk, Zhitomir, Zaporizhzhya, Luhansk, Mykolayiv, Odessa, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson and Chernihiv regions, as well as Crimea with Sevastopol and Kyiv region with Kyiv. This list will be updated on a monthly basis.
According to the BBC Russian Service, 31,000 Ukrainians have been granted refugee status in Hungary so far, but it is unclear how many of them are residents of the affected regions.
After the outbreak of a full-scale war in Ukraine, Hungary received hundreds of thousands of people from Ukraine, who, among other things, were entitled to subsidized housing and social benefits. According to the new rules, such privileges will remain only for those who came from the above-mentioned regions. The new rules do not mean automatic eviction of all refugees, but from August 21, homeowners will no longer receive subsidies from the state to accommodate Ukrainians from the regions “unaffected” by Russia’s attack.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is the only European leader who continues to maintain relations with Vladimir Putin in the wake of his war in Ukraine.In July, the Hungarian head of government announced his “peace mission” and traveled alternately to Kiev, Moscow and Beijing, where he held meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Putin and Xi Jinping. Orban suggested that Zelenskyy and Putin consider a cease-fire. The EU criticized the Hungarian prime minister’s trip to Moscow, noting that he had no mandate to negotiate with the Russian president on behalf of the union. Orban, however, soon called Putin a “rational and reasonable” politician.
Earlier, the head of the Hungarian cabinet repeatedly spread pro-Russian narratives. For example, in March, he accused European countries of waging “their own war” against Russia by supporting Ukraine and imposing sanctions against Moscow. Orban also called for preventing “further escalation of the conflict,” pointing to the “danger” of transferring to Kyiv weapons capable of reaching Russian territory. In addition, the prime minister repeatedly criticized the EU for helping Ukraine, stressing that Brussels’ policy “is not in the interests of Europeans.” The Hungarian government has obstructed almost half of the EU’s decisions on Ukraine. In particular, Budapest blocked the allocation of more than 6.5 billion euros ($7.1 billion) to the country.
Such behavior is increasingly irritating other EU countries, Bloomberg reported in late May, citing knowledgeable sources. According to European diplomats, European leaders are tired of Orban’s antics and are ready to do something that has never been done before in the history of the European Union – deprive the country of the right to participate in joint decision-making. This can be done in accordance with Article 7 of the Treaty on European Union if the country does not follow EU values.
