The photo exhibition, titled The Tattoos of War opened on September 19 in Debrecen, where Sándor Fegyir, Ukraine’s ambassador to Hungary, gave a speech.
The professor of Uzhhorod National University — also partly Hungarian descent on his father’s side — volunteered for the army on the very first day of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. He became internationally known for continuing to give his university lectures even from the trenches. In 2025, he began his diplomatic service in Budapest as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary.
At the exhibition opening in Debrecen, the ambassador gave an interview to Debreciner, where we asked him about how Hungarians are currently perceived in Ukraine, the situation of Ukrainian refugees in Hungary, his experiences at the front, and also what he discussed with the mayor of Debrecen, under whose leadership the local government seems to have developed increasingly close ties with the Russian consul active in the city.
Sándor Fegyir said that after the invasion began, Ukrainians received much help and kindness from Hungarians. He recalled, for example, that people from Pécs sent them a gift package containing Christmas candies, gingerbread, and children’s drawings. These drawings were pinned up on the walls of the trenches, and so the children of Pécs brought Christmas spirit to the Transcarpathian soldiers during the operations near Kharkiv.
The ambassador emphasized that the Transcarpathian Hungarians — 77 of whom had already died in the fighting at the time of the interview — are defending European civilization and Christianity in Ukraine.
He believes that able-bodied people who left Ukraine because of the war must either return to fight or integrate into the society of their host country and work; they cannot behave like “parasites.” In his opinion, it is only natural that European countries no longer provide as much assistance to refugees as they did at the beginning of the war, since they too have their own problems.
Hungarians understand the danger of Russian aggression
In recent months, Debrecen has often made the news because Konstantin Leonidovich Drachevsky, the Russian consul, was allowed to lay wreaths in prominent places at official municipal commemorations. Sándor Fegyir told Debreciner that he had already spoken with Mayor László Papp (Fidesz) about Ukrainian–Hungarian relations. “When two neighbours meet, no rat should disturb them,” he said, alluding to the consul. He added that Debrecen has a Ukrainian bookshelf in its library and a functioning Ukrainian minority self-government, which is not the case in many other cities.
The ambassador also said he had travelled through all 19 counties of Hungary, speaking with all kinds of people — including farmers — and everywhere he found that they understood Russian aggression to be the greatest threat to world peace.
He compared Ukraine’s defensive war to the Hungarian Revolution of 1956, saying that despite overwhelming force, Hungarians resisted the Soviet Union, thereby showing that the Hungarian nation exists. In his view, by fighting against Russian invaders, Ukrainians have also proven to the world that the Ukrainian nation exist.
War is started by foolish people
At the front, Sándor Fegyir realized that war begins when people stop communicating. But to communicate, one must learn to speak and to listen. He believes that wars are started by foolish people who do not learn from history and culture. “I realized at the front that the lack of education, of knowledge, leads to war“ he explained.
That is why the ambassador’s message to Hungarian youth is this: study at school, don’t skip classes, because an intelligent, educated person will never raise a hand against another.
(The interview was made possible with the interpretation of Vitalij Netreba, president of the Ukrainian Minority Self-Government of Debrecen. Thank you!)
