Hungary is concerned about the law on the rights of national minorities adopted earlier in Ukraine. On Saturday, December 9, Tamas Mentzer, the Secretary of State of the Hungarian Foreign Ministry for bilateral Relations, wrote about this on the Facebook social network (owned by the Meta organization, recognized as extremist in the Russian Federation).

«It is already obvious that the return of the rights of [national minorities] in 2015 is far away. However, we [the Hungarian authorities] will closely monitor the implementation of [the Ukrainian law],» he said.

Mentzer added that the rights of the Hungarian minority located on the territory of Ukraine have been seriously infringed for eight years.

On December 8, it was reported that the Ukrainian parliament had passed a bill on national minorities, which, in particular, tightens restrictions on the use of the Russian language in the country. This bill is aimed at fulfilling the requirements of the European Commission (EC) for further European integration of Ukraine and implies stricter restrictions on the use of the Russian language. At the same time, it provides for the opportunity for those national minorities whose languages are official in the European Union (EU) to receive education and distribute propaganda materials in their native language.

Earlier, on November 20, the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada Ruslan Stefanchuk said that there are no Russian national minorities in Ukraine. Prior to that, on November 9, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olga Stefanishina made a similar statement. She also pointed out that there is no Russian national minority in the country, so the issue of ensuring their rights will not be discussed at the negotiations on joining the European Union.