Transcarpathia (Kárpátalja), in Ukraine’s far west, is home to the country’s Hungarian community. About 151,500 people declared Hungarian ethnicity in Ukraine’s 2001 census, the last one held. Researchers estimated about 130,000 before Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, and tens of thousands have since left, many of them men of military age, often settling in Hungary.
A long dispute over language rights
Ukraine’s 2017 education law and later language and minority legislation restricted teaching in minority languages, including Hungarian. These became the main point of conflict between Budapest and Kyiv. Ukraine amended its minorities law in late 2023, a change local Hungarian organizations welcomed, but Hungary’s government continued to press for more. In 2024 it presented a list of 11 demands on minority rights and Hungarian-language education, and in 2025 it kept blocking the opening of Ukraine’s EU accession talks.
The June 2026 agreement
After the change of government in Budapest, Hungary lifted its veto on June 4, 2026, allowing Ukraine to open the first cluster of EU accession negotiations. On June 13, the two countries signed a bilateral agreement covering education, public administration, national symbols and culture, including Hungarian-language instruction and Hungarian-language school-leaving and entrance exams.
Hungary has said it will block further negotiating chapters until Ukraine implements the agreement. Ukraine’s parliament still has to pass the necessary laws. The education provisions are due by December 2026, and legislation on political participation is expected in 2027.
Follow the news from Transcarpathia
- Kárpáti Igaz Szó: Transcarpathian Hungarian newspaper
- Kárpátalja.ma: news portal
- KMKSZ, Hungarian Cultural Federation of Transcarpathia
- Ferenc Rákóczi II Transcarpathian Hungarian University
Sources
- Babel: Ukraine and Hungary signed an agreement on the rights of the Hungarian community in Transcarpathia
- Razom: Hungary lifts veto on Ukraine’s EU accession in exchange for Transcarpathian Hungarians’ rights
- Euromaidan Press: Hungary to keep blocking Ukraine’s EU accession (March 2025)
- Telex: Hungarians in Transcarpathia ask Orbán not to obstruct Ukraine’s EU accession (Dec 2023)
- Exodus of the Hungarian minority from Ukraine? War-induced ethnic dynamics (research)