Ukrainian 'Radicals' Repeatedly Threatened Hungarian MPs, Legislator Reveals

BUDAPEST (Sputnik) - Laszlo Toroczkai, the leader of Hungary's right-wing Our Homeland Movement party, has told Ria Novosti that he personally and members of his faction had received threats from Ukrainian "radicals" several times in recent months.

"Ukrainian terrorists are threatening an entire parliamentary faction in Hungary and me personally - I am also a member of the [Parliamentary Assembly] of the Council of Europe - because of our position on the war in Ukraine," Toroczkai said.

In a video published on his YouTube channel, he said that the faction's lawmakers on February 13 received emails from Ukrainian organization ultras threatening "severe punishment for plans to occupy Transcarpathia." He added that members of the radical organization threatened to "set the office on fire, blow up a car, kill" the lawmakers.

The second threat came to the emails of Hungarian lawmakers on February 28: members of the Fan at War organization recorded a video in which they demanded "an official apology to the Ukrainian people for calling for the annexation of Transcarpathia."

"I will not apologize to the Ukrainian people because I have nothing to apologize for. Because you guys have completely misunderstood us. Hungary does not want to occupy Transcarpathia, we do not want war, we want peace. We did not and do not threaten the Ukrainian people, Hungary has accepted tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees," the official said.

He recalled that the party's program includes recognition of the legitimacy of the 1991 referendum in Ukraine's Transcarpathia, which proclaimed granting autonomy to Transcarpathia and Hungarian territorial autonomy to the Berehove district within Ukraine.

"This legitimate referendum is illegally ignored by the government in Kiev," he said.

The Hungarian lawmaker added that the reason for the threats against his party is not their position on Transcarpathia but the position of Hungarian authorities on Ukraine's accession to the European Union and the financing of Ukraine at the expense of European taxpayers.

He also announced plans to widely disseminate the video with threats, which is currently subtitled in 17 languages.

In late January, Toroczkai said his party is the only party in Hungary that would claim Transcarpathia if Ukraine loses statehood. Gergely Gulyas, the Hungarian prime minister's chief of staff, described Toroczkai's statement as irresponsible because Budapest respects international law.