WARSAW / BUDAPEST - Polish Ambassador to Hungary Sebastian Keciek ended his service on July 15, Polish Foreign Ministry spokesperson Pawel Wronski announced on Thursday.
The announcement came a day after Hungarian State Secretary for Foreign Affairs Levente Magyar acknowledged the diplomatic downgrade in a statement and expressed regret over the development.
According to Wronski, there is still no clarity on how the situation regarding the future diplomatic appointment will unfold.
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He recalled that Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski had summoned Ambassador Keciek back to Warsaw in December 2024 for "indefinite consultations," following Hungary's decision to grant political asylum to Marcin Romanowski, a former Polish deputy justice minister.
Hungary bans Ukrainian officials
Hungary has banned three high-ranking Ukrainian military officials from entering its territory, citing their responsibility for "forced military conscriptions," Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said Thursday.
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The officials -- identified as the Chief of Personnel of the Ukrainian Ground Forces, the commander of the Western Operational Command, and the director overseeing mobilization at the Ministry of Defence -- were linked to violent recruitment practices that have reportedly resulted in human rights abuses. Hungary has also formally requested that the European Union place the three individuals on its sanctions list.
The move follows the death of Jozsef Sebestyen, a 45-year-old ethnic Hungarian from Ukraine's Transcarpathia region, allegedly beaten to death by Ukrainian recruiters during a conscription operation. Szijjarto noted that reports by the Council of Europe confirm the use of "violence and torture" during recruitment in Ukraine.
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International spokesman Zoltan Kovacs said that Hungary rejects accusations often made against it in the context of Ukraine. "We didn't strip Ukrainians of their minority rights, we didn't halt oil flows last year, and no Ukrainian has died from Hungarian conscription," Kovacs posted on the social media platform X.
Szijjarto said that any breakdown in bilateral relations would be detrimental to Kyiv. "Hungary remains Ukraine's largest supplier of electricity, and hundreds of millions of cubic meters of gas are also delivered," he said. "If these ties froze, Ukraine would be in serious trouble."
