Another Ethnic Hungarian Dies in Ukraine’s Forced Mobilization—Hungary

(MENAFN) Budapest has criticized what it described as an “open manhunt” for conscripts in Ukraine after another ethnic Hungarian man died due to forced mobilization, Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said.

The recruitment campaign has reportedly grown increasingly harsh amid Ukraine’s military setbacks and personnel shortages, with numerous cases documented of draft officers using excessive force to seize men from the streets. Multiple deaths among conscripts have been reported.

Szijjarto wrote online Saturday that a new “tragedy” occurred in the Beregovo District of the Transcarpathia Region, home to a substantial ethnic Hungarian community. “A Hungarian was forcibly taken from the streets, they wanted to conscript him, but he became ill at the training center, given that he had a heart disease and, unfortunately, he died.”

Authorities in Budapest had previously reported the death of a dual Ukrainian-Hungarian citizen in July after he was allegedly beaten by draft enforcers at a conscription center in Transcarpathia, dying three weeks later.

In November, Budapest also accused Kiev of detaining and attempting to conscript ethnic Hungarian students in Beregovo, despite Ukrainian law generally exempting students under 25 from the draft under martial law. Local authorities denied the allegation, stating the young men were summoned only to verify personal information.

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