A week will soon pass since the Russian Orthodox Church announced the transfer of almost a dozen Ukrainian prisoners of war, held by Russia, to Hungary. But nothing is now clear about the fate of these POWs. It seems that the Russian Orthodox Church planned to improve its position in the eyes of the West with the help of this “goodwill gesture” and their friends from Hungary. But it turned out the other way around.
“Gesture by the Russian Orthodox Church”
The initial report about the possible transfer of Ukrainian prisoners of war by the Russian Orthodox Church to Hungary appeared on the afternoon of June 8. Ukrainian media sources said the ROC and its Patriarch Kirill (Gundyaev) are going to hand over at least 11 Ukrainian POWs to Hungary. One of the mediators should be the Malta Relief Service of the Sovereign Order of Hospitallers. At the same time, the stunt was in no way coordinated with Ukraine, and its expediency is explained by the “Zakarpattia origin” of the soldiers involved.
On the evening of the same day, a report was posted on the website of the Russian Orthodox Church: “With the blessing of His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Rus, through the mediation of the Russian Orthodox Church, within the framework of inter-church cooperation, at the request of the Hungarian side, a group of Ukrainian prisoners of war of Zakarpattia origin, who took part in hostilities, were handed over to Hungary.”
Apart from this message, the only confirmation of the POW handover to Hungary is the statement of the country’s Deputy Prime Minister, Zsolt Semjen, made the next day, June 9. “This is a gesture of the Russian Orthodox Church toward Hungary, and these people owe their freedom to them,” Zsolt Semjen told atv.hu, without elaborating.
After that, on the same day, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry summoned the Hungarian charge d’affaires in Ukraine in Kyiv, demanding that he provide access to Ukrainian citizens in Hungary.
Instead, Viktor Orban’s deputy, Zsolt Semjen, said Ukraine should thank Hungary. “Eleven Zakarpattia men are no longer prisoners of war, they are free people in Hungary. If I were a Ukrainian official, I would say thank you for this,” said Semjen.
Ukraine intelligence has not yet received confirmation of the very fact of the POW handover and their whereabouts. Moreover, the Russian military, which is responsible for the exchange of prisoners of war, does not confirm the fact of POWs being transferred to Hungary either.
“The issue was discussed with the representatives of the aggressor state, swap commissioners, along the lines of the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War. As of today, representatives of the Russian Ministry of Defense do not confirm the transfer of citizens of Ukraine and the implementation of this project, which was reported by the media and officials in Hungary,” explained Andriy Yusov, a spokesman for the Main Intelligence Directorate at the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and the Coordination Staff for the POW Treatment.
What was that all about?
“Undoubtedly, this will be considered as a purposeful psyop by the aggressor state and the ROC, acting in violation of both the Geneva Conventions and international humanitarian law. Unfortunately, some international organizations and officials are being exploited to this end,” Yusov said.
At the same time, according to Ukrainian special services, Hungary was preparing to hold a press conference involving the group of Ukrainian POWs, where the latter were supposed to criticize Ukraine and thank the ROC, which allegedly helped hand them get to Hungary.
“At the press conference, the prisoners must tell how they were supposedly forcibly mobilized, in what supposedly bad conditions they were fighting, how good the Hungarian government and the Russian Orthodox Church are, etc. Such public appearance involving criticism of Ukraine and gratitude to the Russian Orthodox Church was voiced to the Ukrainian POWs as a mandatory condition for being extracted from Russia,” the source said.
Note that the statement on the transfer of prisoners of war to Hungary appeared a day after the two-day visit to Ukraine of the Pope’s special envoy for peace settlement, Cardinal Matteo Zuppi. And it was the head of the Department of External Church Relations of the Russian Orthodox Church, Metropolitan Antoniy (Sevriuk), who previously met with the Pope several times, that took part in the transfer of prisoners of war.
The Russian Orthodox Church becomes a party to the war
The Geneva Convention on the Treatment of Prisoners of War unequivocally states that prisoners of war are in the hands of an enemy state, not the individuals or military units that captured them. And it is the capturing state that bears responsibility for POWs it holds.
In this way, the Russian Orthodox Church and its leader, Patriarch Kirill, showed that they are an integral part of the Russian state, and therefore an actor taking a direct part in the war against Ukraine.
Most likely, the purpose of this stunt was to restore the lost legitimacy of the Russian Orthodox Church and to try to lift international sanctions against Patriarch Kirill. Instead, the Russian Orthodox Church and its Hungarian friends drive themselves into an even greater impasse. That’s because, if the fact of the transfer of prisoners of war is confirmed, the responsibility for their health and lives falls on the shoulders of Hungary, according to the Geneva Convention.
Russia’s Hungarian friends
This way, Russia once again intends to play the so-called Hungarian card and actualize the imaginary problems of the so-called Zakarpattia separatism.
We have already written how the government structures in Hungary have increased the financial support of the Mukachevo Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church, which is headed by ethnic Hungarian Antal Meinek. It is running a colossal ideological campaign within the framework of Hungary’s soft, creeping occupation of Ukrainian Zakrapattia.
At the same time, the Hungarian Bethlen Gabor Foundation, the Hungarian-Maltese Charity Service, the Hungarian Reformed Foundation, and the Protestant charity AID Dorcas International transferred massive sums to the leaders of the Zakarpattia Reformed Church. Such financial infusions are part of the Hungarian government’s “Supporting National Policy Objectives” program.
Back in 2020, the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, and Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary held behind-the-scenes negotiations regarding the use of the Hungarian minority in Zakarpattia against Ukraine’s national interests.
At the same time, the Hungarian authorities continue to systematically block international sanctions against both Russia and Patriarch Kirill.
