Officials still do not have access to Ukrainian soldiers transferred to Hungary – Ukrainian Ombudsman

Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, said that Ukrainian prisoners of war transferred to Hungary are effectively isolated, and Ukraine has not yet received access to them.

Source: Lubinets on the air of the national 24/7 newscast.

Quote: "We are trying to establish contact with eight prisoners of war. We know where they are. We do not understand why Ukrainian diplomats have not yet been allowed to visit them.

They are effectively in isolation. They have a limited social circle. They [the Hungarian officials – ed.] took the phones they were given to communicate with relatives. We know that some relatives came [to visit them – ed.]. We don't know how the communication happened."

Details: Lubinets also said that Russia did not inform the International Committee of the Red Cross about the transfer of prisoners.

Quote: "I had a separate meeting this morning with the head of the ICRC mission in Ukraine, Mr. Jürg, where I asked whether the information regarding the transfer of 11 prisoners of war of the Armed Forces of Ukraine from the territory of the Russian Federation to Hungary was received from Hungary or the Russian Federation.

The answer was: we learned about this from public channels when this information appeared in the media."

He noted that a person is considered a prisoner of war legally when they are in the country of one of the parties to an international military conflict. As soon as the Russian Federation transferred them to the territory of Hungary, they automatically stopped being considered prisoners.

Background:

• In early June, the Hungarian side said that within the framework of the agreements of the Russian Orthodox Church and the Maltese Relief Service, 11 Ukrainian prisoners of war were taken from Russia.
• At the same time, the Hungarian side did not give Ukrainian diplomats access to the citizens of Ukraine, instead claiming that they had a free status, and also denied the government's involvement in the transfer of prisoners of war.
• Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, says that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had a personal interest in the transfer of Ukrainian prisoners of war from Russia to Hungary. According to the minister, "Viktor Orbán had to show Hungarians both inside and outside Hungary that he is their sole defender.."
• The return of three servicemen from Hungary to Ukraine was reported by the speaker of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Oleh Nikolenko.

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