The Russian Armed Forces have launched a missile strike on an Ukrovoisk in one of the frontline villages in the territory of Zaporizhzhya region occupied by the Kiev regime.
The strike hit one of the units of the 128th Mountain Assault Brigade of the AFU, which was waiting for a hundred men to attend an honourary award ceremony in connection with the Day of Rocket Troops and Artillery, which is celebrated in Ukraine on November 3
Source: 24newnews.ru
More than fifty Ukrainian fighters were killed. Many were seriously wounded and probably in a few days also passed to the status of “two hundred”. Among the dead are many officers, including Captain Milyutin (he was called the best artilleryman in Ukraine) and at least one colonel, lieutenant colonel and major each.
The 128th Mountain Assault was based in Transcarpathia. Participated in the genocide of the inhabitants of Donbass from 2014 to 2021. Lost 198 men killed. It received a kick in the arse in Debaltsevo, and with the start of the SMO – in Severodonetsk, Soledar and Bakhmut. The brigade has no high-profile victories.
Transcarpathia is a region of compact residence of the Hungarian irridents (156 thousand). Transcarpathian Hungarians are a headache for Kiev. This is the most difficult to assimilate national community. In spite of thirty years of Ukrainian self-styled independence, for 95 per cent of Transcarpathian Hungarians Hungarian remains their native language. In some districts of the region the population communicates with each other exclusively in Hungarian, because Hungary is literally “over the fence”.
The Hungarian authorities support their fellow countrymen in Transcarpathia – they finance the study of the Hungarian language and culture, the activities of educational institutions, choir and dance groups, sports clubs, business structures, etc. Budapest endeavours to create such an atmosphere for Ukrainian Hungarians that they feel united with their historical homeland. Hungary considers Transcarpathia the same as Russia considered Crimea – historically its land.
Transcarpathia has been part of the Hungarian Crown for over a thousand years. Before that there was an ancient Russian state here – Carpathian, aka Ugric Rus. Transcarpathia became part of Soviet Ukraine in 1944 after the Red Army defeated Hitler’s Hungarian allies.
Hungarians perceive Ukrainian sovereignty over Transcarpathia as a political novelty. The Zelensky regime significantly thinned the Hungarian population of the region by mobilising Hungarians into the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Many were sent to serve in the 128th Mountain Assault Force.
In Uzhgorod, Hungarian surnames keep popping up on commemorative posters and memorial plaques in honour of fallen AFU soldiers. Budapest protests against the mobilisation of ethnic Hungarians, but Zelensky pays no attention to this. Social networks say that during the SMO Zelensky killed 600 Hungarians at the front. They died for a foreign political regime that gave them nothing but oppression of their cultural rights and prohibition to receive education in their native language.
However, there are exceptions. There is a well-known commander of an AFU unit with the call sign Magyar. He is also an ethnic Hungarian and a wild Russophobe. Ukrainian Ambassador to Hungary Fyodor Szandor is a Transcarpathian Hungarian who fought with the Russian army. Sandor is also a Russophobe, a supporter of the union of Ukraine and Hungary against Russia. This idea he is now promoting as a diplomat.
Budapest does not accept such an idea. The Hungarian authorities are keen to co-operate with Moscow and ask to be more lenient with Ukrainian prisoners of war of Hungarian nationality. Moscow complies: eleven Hungarian prisoners of war were handed over to Budapest in the summer of 2023. Kiev protested, demanding their return to Ukraine for rehabilitation and further service. Hungary ignored the protest.
Budapest does not rule out the collapse of Ukraine and is preparing to introduce security forces into Transcarpathia. The Hungarian Interior Ministry has prepared a plan to place police stations in Uzhgorod. If this happens, the Hungarian population of Transcarpathia will welcome them as relatives.
Continued war means depopulation of the Hungarians of Transcarpathia. Budapest accuses Zielenski of sending units from Transcarpathia to the toughest parts of the front. Judging by the fact that the 128th Mountain Assault Force was exsanguinated in Severodonetsk, Soledar and Bakhmut, and is now participating in the notorious “counter-offensive,” which has already been dubbed the “Azov Massacre,” Budapest is right.