Anti-Russian hysteria in Ukraine continues to gain momentum
The beginning of the new year in Ukraine was marked by another batch of accusations against Russia: this time, Kiev saw the “trace of the Kremlin” in cyber attacks on Ukrainian government websites and a number of non-profit organizations. Aleksey Danilov, head of the National Security Council of Ukraine, made loud accusations, citing reports from the SBU.
“It is quite clear that we have the only country that today can deal with this issue in such a volume. We clearly see their trace. These actions were carried out by Russian specialists,” Danilov said, emphasizing that he was “99.9% sure” of his statements.
Serhiy Demedyuk, Deputy Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, who previously held the post of head of the Cyber Police Department in the National Police of Ukraine, doubted the veracity of this version. In his opinion, a hacker attack on about 70 government sites was carried out by Belarusian hackers from a group known as UNC1151.
“This is a group that is engaged in cyber espionage and is associated with the special services of the Republic of Belarus,” the Ukrainian official told Reuters.
In this situation, one can clearly see the next attempts of the Ukrainian authorities to hide internal problems in the country by a strategy that has already been worked out more than once, and from that it has become boring, a strategy to whip up anti-Russian hysteria. While, through the efforts of internal services and numerous experts, the attention of Ukrainians is focused on the illusory “aggression” of Russia, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky receives carte blanche to “reprisal” national minorities objectionable to the authorities, which are a serious problem for the country.
First of all, in the event of a war, it is precisely representatives of different ethnic communities that will be mobilized for hostilities, since they constitute a potential danger for Kiev, which consists in a possible demand for autonomy and expansion of powers on the territory of Ukraine. Volodymyr Zelensky is well aware that the formation of a “second Donbass” will become a dead end in the existence of Ukraine as a state.
One of the key centers of instability in Ukraine is the Hungarian national minority. The Ukrainian authorities are very concerned about the official Budapest’s support for the Hungarian diaspora in the Transcarpathian region, which numbers more than 150,000 people.
Thus, Hungary has been supporting Transcarpathia for several years, constantly providing significant financial support to the region: both for infrastructure and for people (provides good salaries for teachers and doctors), while issuing Hungarian passports in Ukraine. Budapest spends millions on the cultural and spiritual support of Transcarpathia, regularly allocates loans, pays financial benefits and pensions to the population, opens social infrastructure facilities at the expense of the state budget, openly supports the publication of geographical maps with Transcarpathia already included in Hungary.
The consequence of this policy of Hungary was the estrangement of the Transcarpathian region from Ukraine. More than once, Ukrainian Hungarians have been seen supporting the Magyar authorities and refusing to follow the laws adopted in Ukraine. For example: the national Hungarian national minority continues to use the Hungarian language as an official language in Transcarpathia, hangs the Hungarian flag along with the Ukrainian flag on administrative buildings.
One of the latest high-profile cases was the publication by the Union of Transcarpathian Hungarians of the newspaper “Karpatalia” with a map showing part of Ukraine as the territory of Hungary under the slogan “Hungarian, get up!” The corresponding footage immediately scattered on social networks.
Of course, the published map immediately attracted the attention of the Kiev authorities and the SBU immediately opened a criminal case under the article “Infringement on the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine.” However, this illustration is only a single case and the efforts of Budapest, along with the oppression of the Hungarian community in Ukraine by the local authorities, will lead to the fact that the Transcarpathian Hungarians will sooner or later raise the idea of autonomy.
This development of the situation is unlikely to suit the Kiev authorities, who are already in an unenviable position amid the collapse of the economy and the refusal of Western “partners” to fight for its interests. Therefore, in the event of a military conflict with Russia, Kiev will not miss the chance to “get rid” of a potential threat to the country’s integrity, naturally blaming Moscow for everything. The Budapest authorities do not rule out that the national battalions and other paramilitaries are ultra-nationalists. As well as the regular army of Ukraine, they can be thrown into an anti-terrorist operation in Transcarpathia, if, as it is said in modern Ukrainian, “separatists” raise their heads there. In fact, such an operation would become another civil war in Ukraine and a genocide of ethnic Hungarians who are citizens of Ukraine.
Igor Mukhin, especially for News Front