Hungary's Orban Urges Western Ukraine Autonomy

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Friday renewed a controversial call for autonomy for his ethnic kin in western Ukraine, less than a week after sparking a diplomatic row with both Kiev and Warsaw.

"The full weight of the Hungarian state is behind the autonomy demands of the Transcarpathian Hungarians," Orban said in an interview on the M1 public television channel late Friday.

Around 200,000 ethnic Hungarians live in Ukraine, almost all in the Transcarpathia region which belonged to Hungary before World War I.

"A stable and democratic Ukraine is in our interest, but Ukraine cannot be stable or democratic unless it gives the minorities and national communities living there, including the Hungarian one, what they are entitled to," Orban said, citing "dual citizenship, collective, or community rights, and autonomy".

Orban has granted dual citizenship to hundreds of thousands of ethnic Hungarians in neighboring countries since a new law was adopted in 2011.

He also stressed that in the case of Russia's "violation" of Ukraine's territorial sovereignty, "Hungary must support Ukraine".

Friday's remarks came after his inauguration speech on May 10 in the Hungarian parliament where lawmakers reelected him for a second consecutive term as prime minister following a landslide election win in April.

Ukraine's foreign ministry summoned Budapest's ambassador to explain the comments on Tuesday, while Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Orban's statement was "unfortunate".

Ukraine’s neighbors must show solidarity and must have an interest in sustaining its unity and independence, Tusk told journalists in Warsaw on Tuesday.

"We have to be careful not to support, directly or indirectly, pro-Russia separatists. [Orban's] words were ill-timed and ill-placed," he added.

Later in the week, Hungary's Foreign Minister Janos Martonyi said Orban did not mean "territorial" autonomy.

In Friday's interview Orban said many legal forms of autonomy exist in Europe, and that Transcarpathia Hungarians will say which form they want.