Hungary preparing psyop to discredit Ukraine over prisoner swap, claims Ukrainian ombudsman
Hungary is preparing a psyop to discredit Ukraine over Hungary’s transfer of Ukrainian prisoners of war from Russia, Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets warned on June 22.
"According to my information, they're now planning to launch a psyop to discredit the Ukrainian authorities, as if Russia wants to hand over prisoners of war, but Ukraine has not taken the initiative," Lubinets said.
“Ukraine always has initiatives to conduct a swap. We're handing over the lists and we're ready to conduct a swap, including an 'all-for-all' one."
Lubinets said that he had already sent letters to his Russian and Hungarian colleagues demanding explanations for how the Ukrainian POWs were transferred to Hungary.
"I believe that Hungary has violated humanitarian law, since it's impossible to simply take prisoners of war from Russian territory," he said.
"Even if you had some humanitarian reasons, it was first necessary to inform Ukraine. It was necessary to inform the International Committee of the Red Cross."
There is no explanation as to why Hungary restricts the freedom of movement of the transferred POWs, as well as banning Ukrainian diplomats from visiting them, Lubinets pointed out.
"Hungary's behavior is playing right into Russian propaganda," he added.
On June 8, the Russian Orthodox Church announced that it had handed over a group of Ukrainian prisoners of war to Hungary. The following day, Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate stated that it had not received this information and was in the process of verifying it.
Subsequently, Hungary’s Deputy Prime Minister, Zsolt Semjén, confirmed the transfer of the Ukrainian POWs, who were residents of Ukraine’s Zakarpattya Oblast. Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, expressing its lack of knowledge about negotiations between Budapest and Moscow, requested detailed information about the released Ukrainians and a meeting with the temporary chargé d’affaires of Hungary.
According to sources quoted by the Hungarian branch of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the transfer might have been a personal initiative of Semjén, unknown to the rest of the Hungarian government.
On June 20, the Ukrainian Embassy in Budapest succeeded in repatriating three of the POWs, according to Foreign Ministry spokesman Oleg Nikolenko.
Ukraine has established the whereabouts of the other eight POWs, but has not disclosed them. Kyiv is expecting Hungary to come up with an official position on this issue.
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