Ukraine will protest the scarf the Hungarian prime minister wore to a football match, claiming it depicted some of Ukrainian territory as Hungary’s.
Prime minister Viktor Orban met a Hungarian footballer wearing a scarf, which the outlet Ukrainska Pravda said, depicted a map of “Greater Hungary“ including territory that is now part of the neighbouring states of Austria, Slovakia, Romania, Croatia, Serbia and Ukraine.
Ukrainian ministry spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko said the country demanded an apology and a rebuttal of any Hungarian claims on Ukrainian territory.
He wrote on Facebook: “The promotion of revisionism ideas in Hungary does not contribute to the development of Ukrainian-Hungarian relations and does not comply with the principles of European policy.”
In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Orban seemed to be addressing the controversy when he wrote:“Soccer is not politics. Do not read things into it that are not there.
“The Hungarian national team belongs to all Hungarians, wherever they live!”
The two countries have repeatedly clashed in recent years over what Hungary said were curbs on the right of ethnic Hungarians living in Ukraine to use their native tongue, especially in education, after Ukraine passed a law in 2017 restricting the use of minority languages in schools.
More recently, tensions rose again after Orban said Hungary will not support a European Union plan to provide Ukraine with billions in budget assistance next year.
Speaking at a conference in Budapest, the prime minister said that while Hungary condemns Russia’s aggression and supports the Ukrainian people, he is not willing to put Ukraine’s interests before those of his own country.
