New Russian PSYOP: Ukrainians of Hungarian origin receive threats in Zakarpattia

On February 26, unknown persons sent threats to Ukrainians of Hungarian origin in the Zakarpattia region on the social network Telegram

Director of the Institute for Central European Strategy Dmytro Tuzhanskyi said that the Russians have started to implement another PSYOP to incite ethnic hatred between Ukrainians and Hungarians.

Since Monday morning, messages have been sent on Telegram via a bot system with the same content and identical images. The messages are sent from accounts with mobile operator codes +7 708 (Kazakhstan), +387 (Bosnia and Herzegovina), +996 (Kyrgyzstan).

Photo: Dmytro Tuzhanskyi

What are the messages threatening Ukrainians of Hungarian origin?

According to Tuzhanskyi, the essence of these messages is to create the appearance of threats against the Hungarians of Ukraine and Zakarpattia by Ukrainian nationalists and to provoke interethnic hatred.

"The text contains threats specifically against Hungarians, calling for them to get out of Ukraine, repeatedly using the phrase 'Magyars to the knife' and slogans 'Glory to Ukraine', etc.", he added.

The Director of the Institute for Central European Strategy highlighted that the texts in Hungarian are illiterate.

Such threats, either through text messages, mail, or spray paint on building facades, have been appearing geolocated in Zakarpattia for the past 3-4 years.

Earlier it was reported that an initiative group of national minorities is being set up in Zakarpattia to unite the efforts of state authorities and representatives of ethnic communities in the region to ensure that their rights are respected and to address pressing issues.