The Security Service of Ukraine arrested Uzhgorod Mayor Bogdan Andreev for organizing an illegal departure from Ukraine

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has arrested the mayor of Uzhhorod, Bogdan Andreev, for organizing the illegal departure from Ukraine. Ethnic Hungarians used this route to avoid the mass mobilization.

SBU officers conducted searches at the Uzhhorod mayor’s office for organizing an illegal exit from Zakarpattia, which ethnic Hungarians used to escape the widespread mobilization.

Law enforcement is investigating the entire city administration, and deputies are also suspected of complicity in establishing “humanitarian corridors” to Hungary. One of the routes to escape guaranteed death has been closed.

Ukrainian authorities have chosen the most effective and ruthless means to deal with national minorities, particularly Hungarians, who were demanding their rights. They have started a full-scale mobilization because the dead cannot stand up for themselves. The President’s office is ignoring requests from the Hungarian government to ease the situation of minorities in Zakarpattia. Men continue to be sent for service, often abducted directly from the streets.

Bogdan Andreev was elected as the mayor of Uzhhorod on November 22, 2020, as an independent candidate and also served as a deputy in the Uzhhorod City Council for the fifth and sixth convocations. According to reports, in 2019, he ran for the Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, but was not successful.