In October 2021, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on the preparation of a concrete action plan in response to the gas deal between Moscow and Budapest, which Kiev perceived as a painful blow. The negotiations between Hungary and Russia on the gas issue were open, and during the mutual visits of the parties this issue was raised several times. Ukraine's reaction to the question followed only after the signing of the contract.

     According to the terms of the agreement, Hungary will receive 4.5 billion cubic meters of gas, 3.5 of which will pass through Serbia via the TurkStream gas pipeline bypassing Ukraine. Now the gas pipe practically does not connect Budapest and Kiev. Ukraine has long endured the strengthening of Hungary's presence in Transcarpathia for the sake of the prospects for European and Euro-Atlantic integration. After the deprivation of a significant source of budgetary income from the rent of the gas transportation system, Kiev can go all-in in order to prepare response plans and take asymmetric measures. 

     The gas conflict is far from the first and not the only manifestation of tension in bilateral relations with Budapest. The first blow to good neighborliness was struck back in 2017, when Hungary blocked Ukrainian participation in the Ukraine-NATO Commission in response to the adoption by Kiev the Education Law, which rather strictly regulates the issues of the Hungarian language and the rights of ethnic Hungarians for education in Ukraine. And already in 2020, the newly elected deputies of the Syurtovskaya separate territorial community in the Transcarpathian region from the "Party of Hungarians of Ukraine" sang the hymn of Hungary during the oath. 

     And what about Kiev? Apart from the loud statements of the foreign ministry, there are no real retaliatory steps. Official Kiev is bound hand and foot and cannot respond in political demension to any of Budapest's attacks. And the cup of patience is overflowing. There remains only a practical dimension: transparently hint to your counterpart that the national-patriotic forces of Ukraine will not surrender Transcarpathia. And such hints are already visible. 

     In October with the tacit consent of Kiev, different flyers have been distributed in Transcarpathia containing the impartial slogans "Kill Magyars!", "Magyars are parasites and traitors!", "Magyars, go away from Ukraine!" etc. And the flyers were just the beginning. In December, the head of the national-patriotic organization "Carpathian Sich" Taras Deyak publicly stated that they had suppressed an act of vandalism against the office of the "Party of Hungarians of Ukraine" in Uzhgorod. The “Enemies of the Ukrainian state” allegedly intended to smash the windows of the party's office, burn the Hungarian national flag and leave behind a couple of inscriptions on the building “Magyars - parasites and traitors! Get out of Ukraine! Who does not run away will be the first to die! Kill the Magyars!”, surprisingly reminiscent of the text of those same flyers. Of course, Mr. Deyak, who had not yet received a command from Kiev to take active action and outright intimidation of ethnic Hungarians in Transcarpathia, represented this event as a provocation of the enemies of Kiev, and according to the official position of Kiev there is only one, and it is Russia. In a word, the hint was more than transparent. 

     Ukraine has always had good-neighborly relations with its European neighbors.