The death of the Ukrainian set suggests order with Hungary

The death of a 45-year-old Ethnic Hungarian language in Ukraine, weeks after he entered the Ukrainian army, sparked a fierce dispute between the Hungarian government and the authorities in Kiev.

Joseph Self, a dual Ukrainian Hungarian citizen, was beaten with iron bars after being forcibly prepared on June 14, his brother and sister told Hungarian media.

Self, from Berehow in Western Ukraine, died there at a psychiatric hospital on July 8th.

The circumstances surrounding his death were denied by the military, but his case was illuminated by the forced summons in Ukraine, as the army seeks to protect the front lines from Russia in the face of heavy losses.

“They took me to the forest with many other men and started beating me there,” said himself from the site of Hungary Mandner, telling his brother and sister.

“The beats were mainly to the head and body. They said that if I didn’t sign something, it would take me to zero (front line). It hurts me so much, I couldn’t move.”

On July 10, Ukrainian Ambassador Sandor Fagier was summoned to the Hungarian Foreign Ministry to Budapest on the case.

Prime Minister Victor Orban, a bitter critic of the Ukrainian government and military efforts, published on Facebook: “A Hungarian citizen was beaten to death in Ukraine. A few kilometers from the Hungarian border. A country where this can happen cannot be a member of the EU.”

Later the same day, the Ukrainian army published its complete denial.

“According to the final report of the hospital, no physical injury was found during the medical examination,” the statement said.

“We firmly reject all allegations of a forced labor, inhuman attitude or violations of human rights, whether from territorial military centers or other military officials.”

The army continues to say that it will be open to “transparent investigation under Ukrainian law”.

The incident became the most Flashpoint at war of words between the Orbapest government in Budapest and the Volodimir Zelenski administration in Kiev.

In May, Spy order caused arrests in both sides, and in Tit-For-Tat Explussions of DiplomatsS

At the end of June, the Hungarian government published the results of its latest National Consultation, which presented eight reasons not to allow Ukraine in the EU and invited citizens to vote “No”.

More than two million have done so, according to results that have not been inspected independently.

The allegations of violence during a forced summons in Ukraine are not new. Ukrainian men are entitled to the army aged 25 to 60, and most men aged 18 are forbidden to leave the country.

“I continue to hear from relatives of those taken by the military that they receive their blood -covered clothes,” a Hungarian woman told Transcarpathia to the BBC, provided for anonymity.

“The situation has worsened since the beginning of the war, but in the last two months it has become particularly bad.”

Often, it continues, medical certificates providing the release from the project are ignored by soldiers – and owners are unceremoniously inserted into vehicles and are taken away. Thousands of dollars, “crazy sums”, are required in exchange for being left in peace.

There are also allegations that critics of the government, including journalists, are deliberately focused on a summons.

The 58 -year -old Oleh Diba, editor of Zakarpattya Online, is now on a hunger strike in military detention. He claims he was taken as his articles investigating wind turbines in the Carpathian Mountains upset the authorities.

Ukrainians may take cases of unjust or violent summons in the service of the Ukrainian Ombudsman for human rights, Dmytro Lubynets.

He recently said his office had received 3,500 complaints about human rights violations with respect to a summons in 2024 and more than 2000 complaints so far this year.

Criminal cases have been filed against more than 50 tenants, he said.

The right to a conscientious objection was abolished in Ukraine when in February 2022 a martial law was declared – a month Russia began its full -scale invasion.

At the request of the Constitutional Court of Ukraine, the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe issued an opinion on the alternative service in Ukraine In March 2025

“States have a positive obligation to create a system of alternative service that must be separated from the military system, it will not be criminal and remain in a reasonable time,” the statement said.