Hungary bans three Ukrainian military leaders from entering the country

The Hungarian government has decided to ban three Ukrainian military leaders from entering the country, because, according to them, they are "responsible for forced conscription," Gergely Gulyás announced at the government briefing on Thursday morning. The government has also issued a ban on their entry into the Schengen area. According to Gulyás, this was necessary because, after the death of József Sebestyén, a Hungarian man from Transcarpathia, in 2025 (in which case the Ukrainian prosecutor's office found no evidence of a crime), another Hungarian man with health problems has now died during conscription.

"It was decided at today's government meeting, that Ukrainian citizens participating in forced conscription will be immediately banned from Hungarian territory," Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in a video posted on his Facebook page on Wednesday evening. According to his explanation, this was necessary because, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, in January, a Hungarian man was "forcibly taken from the street in the Berehove district of Transcarpathia, with the objective of conscription, but given that he had a heart condition, he became unwell at the training center, and unfortunately passed away."

Last summer, following the death of József Sebestyén, Russia expert András Rácz pointed out that, despite the terminology used by members of the government and the state media, there is no such thing as "forced conscription." This is partly because conscription itself is an activity carried out by coercion. On the other hand, since conscription can take place in peacetime, in wartime this activity is called mobilization.

This is not the first time that a Ukrainian citizen has been banned from entering Hungary: last summer, Hungary initiated a ban against Robert Brovdi, the highest-ranking ethnic Hungarian in the Ukrainian army, applicable to the entire Schengen zone. As commander of the drone units, Brovdi was in charge of the Ukrainian attack on the Russian section of the Druzhba oil pipeline, which also supplies Hungary and Slovakia. In response, Ukraine banned three high-ranking Hungarian military officers from entering Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Ukraine's Embassy in Hungary posted on Wednesday that Ambassador Sándor Fegyir and Hungarian Minister of the Interior Sándor Pintér had met to discuss "the most pressing issues of bilateral cooperation." They discussed, for example, the education of Ukrainian children in Hungary, the continuation of the Hungarian student scholarship program for Ukrainians, and Ukrainians imprisoned in Hungary.

The embassy did not mention whether the case of the man from Transcarpathia who recently died was discussed. We have sent questions about the circumstances of the case both to the Ukrainian embassy and the Ministry of the Interior, and we will update the article as soon as we receive a response.