Russia transported Transcarpathian POWs to Hungary

The Russian Orthodox Church claims that soldiers captured by Russia and fighting on the side of Ukraine have been transported to Hungary, several media outlets have reported in recent hours (Atv, Index, Hvg).

The Ukrainian side has not commented on the statement of the Russian Orthodox Church so far. The statement reads: "With the blessing of his Holiness Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, through the mediation of the Russian Orthodox Church, within the framework of interchurch cooperation, and at the request of the Hungarian side, a group of Ukrainian prisoners of war of Transcarpathian origin who had been involved in the hostilities were transported to Hungary."

At least eleven prisoners of war of Transcarpathian origin were brought to Hungary at the request of Budapest. According to Atv, they are all ethnic Hungarians, all of them Ukrainian citizens. No arrangements were made with Ukraine on their transfer, which is usually the case with prisoners of war.

Hungarian Deputy Prime Minister Zsolt Semjén said that "this is a gesture of the Russian Orthodox Church towards Hungary, and this is what these people owe their freedom to". On the Hungarian side, the Hungarian Charity Service of the order of Malta was involved in the process.

Last year, Patriarch Kirill, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church, who has a background as a KGB agent, was removed from the EU's sanctions list against Russia under pressure from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán.

We sent related questions to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Hungarian Charity Service of the order of Malta. They wrote: “The Hungarian Charity Service of the order of Malta was asked to participate in saving people's lives. The organisation, as it has done for the past three decades, whenever it has had the opportunity to do so, has fulfilled its mission. In order to protect the people entrusted to us, we are not in a position to disclose any more information at this time.”

The ministry only informed us that they are not in a position to disclose more than what Zsolt Semjén had said.

It seems Ukraine wasn't aware of the transfer

The Ukrainian intelligence service is looking into the truthfulness of the claim of the Russian Orthodox Church about the transfer of soldiers fighting on the side of Ukraine from Russia to Hungary, Korreszpondent has reported. Officially, the Ukrainians have not confirmed the news, at least according to Andriy Yusov, a representative of the authority responsible for the treatment of prisoners of war.

The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry has also contacted the Hungarian Foreign Ministry and Zsolt Semjén. According to the Ukrainians, the International Red Cross was not aware of the transfer of the prisoners of war.