Hungary is ready to allow the transit of Ukrainian grain through its territory to Western Europe, Prime Minister Peter Magyar told Hungarian television channel RTL in an interview published on October 17.
The announcement followed a request from President Volodymyr Zelensky at an EU summit in Brussels on October 16, as kyiv sought European support amid deteriorating relations with the United States.
Zelensky said grain shipments across the Black Sea were currently not possible due to Russian attacks and urged Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary to allow Ukrainian grain to transit through their territories to Western countries, as they did at the start of Russia’s large-scale invasion.
During their first bilateral meeting, Zelensky also told Magyar that transporting Ukrainian grain to Western Europe in sealed wagons would be a big help.
“I said if he was just passing through the country, obviously there would be no obstacles to his passage,” Magyar said.
The Hungarian Prime Minister said that a well-established transit procedure had been established three or four years earlier, but was subsequently discontinued.
Under the previous government led by Viktor Orban, Hungary declared a state of emergency and introduced a ban on Ukrainian agricultural products.
Concerns about the strength of Ukraine’s agricultural sector have also complicated its relations with other European countries. Poland is blocking progress on part of Ukraine’s EU accession negotiations, fearing that Ukraine’s membership will harm Polish farmers.
The meeting between Zelensky and Magyar took place the same week that the Ukrainian president signed a law on the educational rights of Ukrainian national minorities, a measure that Hungary had demanded before allowing kyiv’s EU accession negotiations to continue.
“We consider the adoption by the Ukrainian parliament of the law on education of minorities and the immediate start of its implementation as a first step towards rebuilding mutual trust,” Magyar said after the meeting.
Gn world
