Hungary is on a mission to bring Zakarpattia oblast in western Ukraine under its influence by handing out huge grants to local residents and businesses, according to an investigation by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and journalists from numerous countries.
The region of Zakarpattia, located 800 kilometers southwest of Kyiv, had been disputed among numerous powers, including Hungary, throughout the 20th century. It remains a point of contention between Hungary and Ukraine. Approximately 100,000 ethnic Hungarians currently live in the region.
The Hungarian government has tried to capitalize on this by providing around 36 billion forints or 115 million euros to the Hungarian diaspora in the region from 2011 through 2020. The grants largely come through Hungary’s Bethlen Gábor Fund, whose stated aim is “promoting the goals related to the Hungarian government’s national policy strategy.”
Pavlo Klimkin, the former head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, says that the goal of Budapest is to separate this area with “an invisible border” and make it Hungarian. He also believes that the money goes towards building support for Fidesz, Orban’s ruling party.
“They constantly try to mobilize voter support by bringing in Hungarians, whom they do not consider to be diaspora Hungarians by the way,” he told RFE/RL. “Thus, most of them have Hungarian passports and vote for the Fidesz party.”
Hungarians deny that Hungary finance political activities in Ukraine, which is prohibited. However, according to Schemes, the public organizations that receive foreign money and local political parties are run by the same people.
Over the years, Ukraine’s security services have raided Hungarian organizations in Zakarpattia, accusing them of separatism.
The local consulate has also handed Hungarian passports to Ukrainian citizens of Hungarian descent. Ukrainian authorities had noticed that before the Hungarian parliamentary elections in 2018, Ukrainians with Hungarian passports were transported to villages along the border between the two countries.
Many ethnic Hungarians in Zakarpattya have dual citizenship, a practice that is prohibited in Ukraine.
Education, religion and business
Both organizations and individuals have received grants from Hungary, which pours money into many industries in Zakarpattia: tourism, education and culture.
More than half of allocated grants — at least 62 million euros — went to educational institutions and programs. The Hungarian government also pays extra to Hungarian-speaking teachers, doctors and librarians.
From 2011 to 2020, the Bethlen Gábor Fund has also pumped over 6.8 billion forints, or almost 22 million euros into local parishes in Zakarpattia.
Many ethnic Hungarians who live in Ukraine receive grants to develop their businesses.
Culture
In the past decade, the Hungarian governmental fund allocated at least 2.5 million euros in the culture industry in Zakarpattya.
Andriy Lyubka, a Ukrainian writer who plans to create an anthology of Ukrainian Hungarian-language literature translated into Ukrainian, says it’s straightforward to receive financial assistance from Hungary, compared to Ukraine.
“You can get money from Hungarians in 5 minutes for almost any idea, if it somewhere helps Hungarians to promote their interests, to promote their culture,” Lyubka says. “But my principled position is this should happen for the money of Ukraine.”
The Hungarian state fund also actively finances media outlets focused on Hungary. So far, it has poured over 66,000 euros into at least four media outlets.
Moreover, the Hungarian Media Development Fund based in Ukraine received almost 4,000 euros. The Zakarpattyan Union of Journalists got nearly 117,000 euros, which allocated in other Ukrainian media outlets focused on Hungarian issues. In total, Ukrainian local media outlets about Hungary received at least 187,000 euros from the Bethlen Gábor Fund.
“This is a kind of export of Hungarian state propaganda,” said Slovak journalist Karin Kőváry-Sólymos.
Politics
In Zakarpattya, Ukrainians with Hungarian roots have two organizations that operate as political parties during the elections: the Society of Hungarian Culture of Zakarpattya (Party of Hungarians in Ukraine) and the Democratic Union (Party) of Hungarians of Ukraine.
In 2019, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban met in Budapest with the head of the Party of Hungarians in Ukraine, Vasyl Brenzovych, who was a candidate for Ukraine’s parliament. Ukrainian diplomats said this meeting interfered in Ukraine’s domestic affairs.
According to the investigation, the Party of Hungarians owns several buildings bought using money from the Bethlen Gábor Fund. Moreover, in 2019, Bethlen Gábor Fund financed party billboards in Zakarpattia.
