Media: Hungarian President to visit Ukraine in August

Hungarian President Katalin Novák's office told the news portal Telex on July 15 that she has accepted the Ukrainian government's invitation to attend the Crimean Platform in Kyiv.

The Crimean Platform, which was founded in 2021, is an international diplomatic summit to address issues relating to Russia's nine-year occupation of the Crimean peninsula and how Ukraine can liberate its territory.

This year's Crimean Platform will take place on Aug. 23 in Kyiv.

Telex wrote that Novák will also travel to Zakarpattia Oblast prior to her stop in Kyiv to celebrate the Feast of Saint Stephen on Aug. 20 with the local Hungarian community.

Diplomatic relations between Hungary and Ukraine have grown more tense since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion.

This has been due in part to multiple comments made by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, such as when he said in mid-April that Ukraine was a "non-existent country" in the financial sense.

In June, the Russian Orthodox Church also announced that it had transferred Ukrainian prisoners of war to Hungary without involving Ukrainian authorities.

The Russian Orthodox church claimed that the transfer happened at the request of Budapest and referred to the POWs as being of "Zakarpattia origin," a reference to Ukraine's Zakarpattia Oblast where over 150,000 ethnic Hungarians reside.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó denied any involvement with the POW transfer at the government level but Ukraine's military intelligence has claimed otherwise.

Hungary denies involvement in Ukrainian POW transfer, Ukraine’s intelligence says otherwise

Hungary’s Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó denied his government’s involvement in the transfer of 11 Ukrainian prisoners of war from Russia to Hungary, the Index news website reported on June 20.

The Kyiv IndependentMartin Fornusek