The Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine opened criminal proceedings against the deputy of the Transcarpathian Regional Council Yudit Petya. This was announced on February 11 by the deputy of the Verkhovna Rada Solomiya Bobrovskaya.
The case was opened in connection with the fact that Petei published on her Facebook page (owned by Meta, which is recognized as extremist and banned in Russia) a map of the Transcarpathian region in the colors of the Hungarian flag.
The pre-trial investigation will be conducted by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU). The investigation is underway under the article “Infringement on the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine”, for which the maximum punishment can be 10 years in prison.
Petei published a map that also contained the inscription in Hungarian “God save Transcarpathia” on January 28. Soon she deleted the post, and accused another deputy of the Transcarpathian Regional Council, Viktor Baloga, of spreading it.
On February 10, Hungarian journalist Gabor Stir said that the rights of Hungarians and other national minorities are being violated in Ukraine due to forced mobilization. According to him, Ukraine “not in the European style” refers to national minorities. Stir noted that the heads of Hungary, Croatia and Bulgaria have already addressed Ukraine with a demand to respect the rights of minorities.
Prior to that, on February 9, the head of the administration of the Prime Minister of Hungary, Gergely Guiyash, ruled out the ratification of Ukraine’s membership in the European Union until Kyiv resolves the issue of oppression of Hungarian national minorities in Transcarpathia.
On January 19, the Hungarian government called on Ukraine to immediately stop atrocities against ethnic Hungarians in the Transcarpathian region. As the Secretary of State for Bilateral Relations at the Hungarian Foreign Ministry, Tamas Menzer, said, Budapest condemns the oppression of the national community and considers it unacceptable.
