According to police reports, the man was driving a Toyota RAV 4 SUV with diplomatic license plates and when police arrived at the scene, he refused to submit to an alcohol test and did not want to provide his diplomatic status. Police said the man was “behaving erratically” and was taken to a nearby hospital. Police subsequently found that the man is posted to the Ukrainian Embassy in Budapest as the trade attaché.
The incident comes fresh on the heels of a diplomatic row between Hungary and Ukraine.
Recently, Ukrainian state news agency Ukrinform released a hidden camera recording showing ethnic Hungarians from Ukraine taking their Hungarian citizenship oath at the Hungarian consulate in Beregszász (Beregovo, Ukraine). While Hungary grants easy access to citizenship for all ethnic Hungarians living abroad, Ukraine does not recognize dual citizenship. Ukraine is host to some 140,000 ethnic Hungarians.
Klimkin said in an interview recently that he “does not exclude” the possibility that Ukraine will expel the Hungarian consul in Beregovo, adding in a later interview that Ukraine might do so if Hungary does not recall him.
Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szíjjártó said that should Ukraine expel a Hungarian consul, Hungary “will respond proportionately”.
