A press conference with Ukrainian prisoners of war is being prepared in Hungary. At the event, the POWs are supposed to criticize Ukraine and thank the Russian Orthodox Church, which allegedly helped set up their handover to the Hungarian side.
This was reported by RBC-Ukraine referring to sources close to Ukrainian intelligence.
According to one of the interlocutors, such statements, voiced publicly, were a mandatory condition for their release by Russia.
“At the press conference, the prisoners must tell how they had supposedly been forcibly mobilized, in what allegedly bad conditions they were fighting, how good the Hungarian government and the Russian Orthodox Church are, etc. Such public activity involving criticism of Ukraine and gratitude to the Russian Orthodox Church was voiced to the Ukrainian prisoners as a mandatory condition for their release from Russia,” the source said.
The informed source clarified that the location of the prisoners is not being disclosed to Ukraine so the authorities are not in contact with them. POWs are under armed guard and not allowed to move freely and return to Ukraine.
Russian Orthodox Church hands over part of Ukrainian POWs to Hungary
Earlier reports claimed that the Russian Orthodox Church and its patriarch Kirill planned to hand over at least 11 Ukrainian prisoners of war to Hungary in order to restore the lost legitimacy of the church against which extensive international sanctions had been imposed.
It was also noted that Russia plans to play the so-called “Hungarian card” in order to actualize the trumped up problems of the alleged “Zakarpattia separatism”.
According to Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for military intelligence, Kyiv has no official confirmation regarding the transfer of prisoners of war to Hungary. At the same time, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine contacted Hungarian counterparts regarding the issue.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine stated that the Ukrainian government was not informed about the relevant negotiations between the Hungarian and Russian parties. The Hungarian charge d’affairs was summoned to the ministry for explanations.
At the same time, MFA Ukraine emphasized that the release of Ukrainian prisoners of war is “always good news.”
