Friends or Foes: What is Going on in Ukrainian-Hungarian Relations after the Russian Invasion?

Abstract

Since 2017, Ukrainian-Hungarian relations have been experiencing a deep crisis. The diplomatic tensions between Kyiv and Budapest, which began with the issue of the rights of the Hungarian minority in Ukraine, has never really been limited to this issue. Today, the rights of the Hungarian minority seem to be a pretext rather than a cause. The diplomatic crisis from the very beginning has been orchestrated, fueled, and exploited by Russia. Every time when Ukrainian-Hungarian relations have reached their lowest point, another escalation had happened and these relations have fallen to a new "lowest" point, deepening the crisis. Even the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine did not change the situation. However, the successful resistance of Russian aggression thanks to Western support and the beginning of Ukraine's accession to the EU have created the preconditions for at least normalizing Ukrainian-Hungarian relations. This article analyzes the key milestones of the Ukrainian-Hungarian relations since the fall of 2021 - less than six months before the Russian invasion.