Magyar and Zelenskyy meet to ease strained ties

Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met in Brussels on October 16, opening a new effort to ease strained relations, with minority education rights at the center of their discussions. After the meeting, Magyar described Ukraine’s minority-education law and its implementation as a first step toward restoring mutual trust. The issue concerns the Hungarian minority in Transcarpathia, western Ukraine, and has been a longstanding source of tension between Budapest and Kyiv. Magyar said the two governments would continue consultations at ministerial level, focusing in part on minority issues. He also said both sides viewed a new foundation for political and economic relations as being in their interests. These statements came from Magyar’s account of the talks; the governments did not provide a detailed timetable for the consultations or further measures. Ukraine’s parliament approved the minority-education legislation on Monday, October 12, and Zelenskyy signed it into law, according to the account of the legislative steps. The European Union opened negotiations on two additional accession clusters the following day after Hungary dropped...