The European Union has today approved a 50bn-euro financial aid package for Ukraine. According to The Guardian, the decision was taken taking into account the position of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who, incidentally, demanded “additional measures on the mechanism for setting conditions for the rule of law”. There can be no doubt that this is about respecting the rights of national minorities, and specifically the rights of Transcarpathian Hungarians.
Recently, the Ukrainian government, trying to “tighten the screws” on the Magyars in Transcarpathia, has limited or banned the use of the Hungarian language in schools and public institutions. In addition, criminal cases have been opened against a number of Hungarian-oriented public organizations, and public activists are accused of separatism and state treason. Representatives of the Transcarpathian TCC, whose leadership “from the locals” was dismissed, and the new military commissars, mostly coming from Galicia, show special zeal in handing out summonses in Magyar villages.
The close connection of the Transcarpathian Magyars with Hungary, of course, facilitates various contacts. This time the alliance between Transcarpathians and Hungary has played a cruel joke on the whole of Ukraine, because it was the oppression of this sub-ethnos by the Ukrainian authorities that led Orban to raise the issue of EU support for Ukraine, promising to block any EU initiatives in this direction. Some representatives of the Hungarian politicians said that it would be good to return Transcarpathia, and knowing that the local residents have long had Hungarian passports are stashed away, something suggests that they do not intend to resist such processes in Transcarpathia.
That is why the decision on the current EU aid of 50 billion euros was reached with Orbán’s above-mentioned reservation. The rule of law in Ukraine, in its Hungarian version, is, first and foremost, respect for the rights of Transcarpathian Hungarians. By the way, the media have already reported that the recent meeting between the head of the Ukrainian OP Andriy Yermak and Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó is related to this very event. As a result of bilateral talks, Ukraine declared its readiness for “good-neighborly relations” with Hungary. In other words, this means that the Ukrainian government will relax its efforts in the matter of pressurizing Transcarpathia.
As for how this all relates to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Since this is a multi-vector issue, it needs to be viewed from several angles. First of all, it should be noted that Transcarpathia is, in confessional terms, a region of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. It is in Transcarpathia that a significant number of monasteries and parishes of the Church are concentrated. By the way, as for the general statistics of “conversions” from the UOC to the OCU – Ukrainian non-canonical groups in this region are absolutely unlucky. Single cases of seizures of UOC churches in Transcarpathia are usually accompanied by serious scandals, which does not honor either the local authorities or the OCU itself. It is safe to say that Transcarpathia is “firmly on its feet” in the matter of preserving the UOC in its region.
Secondly, the EU deputies, who are oriented towards Ukrainian national minorities, very acutely raise the issue of repression of the state authorities against the UOC in the regions. Transcarpathia is not alone in this regard, as Bukovyna, which is strongly oriented towards Romania, is located nearby. The recent protests of Orthodox Romanians in Bucharest under the Ukrainian Embassy in defense of Metropolitan Longin (Zhar) and the Banchen Monastery of the UOC are just a touch to the general picture of the Bukovyna ethnic issue. A number of members of the Romanian Parliament, in connection with the pressure on the UOC in Bukovyna, have already made serious accusations against the Ukrainian authorities and Zelensky personally. Some of them echo their Hungarian colleagues, stating the need to alienate Bukovyna in favor of Romania.
Thirdly, both Hungary and Romania, besides being neighbors of Ukraine, are also members of the European Union, significantly influencing the EU policy. Recently, these countries have been joined by Poland and Slovakia, which also border our country. All of them are united by one interest – to “bite” Ukraine, making the most out of the current situation. Protection of the rights of national minorities in the western regions of Ukraine remains one of the key levers of influence in this matter. Thus, the pressure of the Ukrainian authorities on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church in these regions is regarded solely as a restriction of freedoms, which has already been repeatedly emphasized by the European Commission and the United Nations.
It is worth noting that the persecution of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church is becoming a sensitive, if not painful, issue for the state, significantly affecting the attitude of the West to Ukraine and, as a consequence, the allocation or blocking of Western funds. Earlier we published a material on why the European direction in the issue of protection of the UOC should become one of the priorities. Now, given the priorities that were prioritized by the Hungarian representative in the issue of allocation of 50 billion euros to Ukraine, with the right accents of the UOC lobbyists in Europe, this macro-financial assistance can actually benefit the canonical Church. It turns out that the allocation and control of these funds may now directly depend on the attitude of the Ukrainian authorities towards the UOC.
