Putin Decides to Free Two Hungarian POWs

(MENAFN) Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Wednesday the release of two Hungarian nationals captured while fighting in Ukraine, acting on a personal appeal from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and granting the request during a high-profile Kremlin meeting.

Putin confirmed the two men hold dual Ukrainian-Hungarian citizenship and had been "forcibly mobilized" into Kyiv's armed forces, framing the release as a direct gesture of goodwill toward Budapest.

"Yesterday, during our telephone conversation, Prime Minister Mr. Viktor Orban also raised this issue and asked to consider the possibility of releasing Hungarian citizens who have ended up in captivity of the Russian army," Putin said, addressing Hungary's Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto at the Kremlin.

Szijjarto had arrived in Moscow bearing an explicit plea, citing a pattern of forced conscription targeting Hungarian nationals living in Ukraine. "Very many of them have gone missing. Very many of them have been captured. Therefore, we would like to ask you: could you make a decision to release some prisoners of war of Hungarian origin who are in captivity," he said, directing the appeal squarely at Putin.

The Russian president confirmed he honored Orban's request without hesitation. "I have made the decision to release two people. And you will be able, as the prime minister requested, to take them with you directly onto the plane you arrived on and will return to Budapest on," Putin stated.

The diplomatic groundwork had been laid a day earlier, when the Hungarian government circulated a video Tuesday featuring a serviceman from Uzhhorod who identified himself as Albert Roman, a Hungarian native of Transcarpathia. Roman claimed he had been forcibly conscripted by Ukrainian authorities, sustained wounds in combat, and was subsequently taken captive. He appealed directly to Orban to intervene and secure his return home, stating that Russian soldiers had provided him with medical care.

Orban and Putin spoke by phone later that Tuesday, laying the groundwork for what would unfold at the Kremlin the following day.

The prisoner release, however, was not the meeting's only significant outcome. Szijjarto disclosed that Moscow had extended firm guarantees on energy supplies to Hungary at current prices — a major concession amid sweeping global energy market turbulence. "The good news is that we have a guarantee for the supply of oil and natural gas to Hungary, despite the international crisis on the energy market. We were given a guarantee that Russia will supply all of this to us at the same prices, despite what is happening due to the war in Iran," Szijjarto said.

The energy assurances come at a particularly fraught moment. Ukraine previously suspended oil deliveries to Hungary and Slovakia, blaming Russia for strikes on the Druzhba pipeline used to transport those supplies. Budapest retaliated by blocking a €90 billion credit package earmarked for Kyiv.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pushed back on Hungary's energy stance, insisting alternative suppliers stand ready to step in. He charged that Orban "does not want to pay the same prices" as other EU member states — a pointed accusation that casts Budapest's continued reliance on Russian energy in a deeply political light.

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