This is not the first time Szabolcs Voros has sidelined issues affecting the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia, Mandiner pointed out. As Magyar Nemzet reported, he was the first Hungarian journalist to be granted an interview with the Ukrainian president. However, the Valasz Online journalist did not take advantage of this unique opportunity to ask Volodymyr Zelensky a single question about the plight of the Hungarian community in Transcarpathia during the more than one-hour-long interview.
Speaking on the Partizan program, Szabolcs Voros stated that, in his opinion, the topic is not significant enough:
There are more important issues than the Hungarians in Transcarpathia,
he said. Mandiner pointed out that Szabolcs Voros had already made his position clear in 2023. In an interview with Nepszava at the time, the paper wrote:
Szabolcs Voros, journalist at Valasz Online, who last visited Ukraine in January, called it completely counterproductive for the Hungarian government to hinder Ukraine’s integration efforts by citing the interests of the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia, and he presented the Polish government’s more patient stance as a counterexample."
According to Mandiner, this statement and the logic behind it suggest that the goal is to push the protection of Hungarian communities abroad into the background, thereby weakening national advocacy. For the political Left, Ukrainian integration overrides everything – even the rights of Hungarian minorities.
During the interview, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also sharply criticized Viktor Orban. According to Hungary's Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, Kyiv is conducting anti-Hungarian propaganda because:
“Hungary stands on the side of peace. Hungary does not supply weapons to Ukraine, we do not send the Hungarian people’s money to Ukraine.”
Szijjarto added that the Ukrainian president is interested in seeing a puppet government in Hungary that would send Hungarian taxpayers’ money to Ukraine.
