The story first came to light in a report published by pro-government portal Mandiner on July 9, which claimed that 45-year-old József Sebestyén had been beaten so severely with iron rods by Ukrainian recruiters that he had succumbed to his wounds three weeks later on July 6. The article cited a Facebook post by the victim’s sister, which was either deleted or may never have existed, according to fact-checking by the German state-funded television network and public service international broadcaster Deutsche Welle.
On July 10, the Ground Command of the Ukrainian Armed Forces issued a statement regarding Sebestyén, in which they shed light on the circumstances leading to his death and unequivocally denied any abuse.
“We categorically reject the allegations of forced mobilization, ill-treatment or human rights violations committed by the Territorial Mobilization and Social Support Center or other officials of the Armed Forces of Ukraine,” the statement declared.
As a Ukrainian citizen of fighting age, Sebestyén had been registered with the Ukrainian military administration and was stopped at a roadside checkpoint in Berehove, the cultural center of the Hungarian minority in Ukraine, where Hungarians constitute roughly half of its population. Upon passing a medical examination, which found him fit for military service, Sebestyén was legally mobilized into the Ukrainian Armed Forces on June 14 and assigned to a training facility the following day.
After deserting on June 18, Sebestyén was checked into the emergency department of the Central Regional Hospital of Berehove, where he was diagnosed with an acute stress reaction, prompting his transfer to the Berehove Regional Psychiatric Care Institution. The inpatient medical records showed that no physical injuries had been found during his initial examination, and that he subsequently died of a pulmonary embolism on July 6.
While investigating the matter, EuroNews tracked down Zoltán Razsó, a former soldier who had served with the Ukrainian Ambassador to Hungary Sándor Fegyir but is now a nurse at the hospital where József Sebestyén died. Although working in a different ward when Sebestyén passed, colleagues told him that Sebestyén had collapsed dead in the bathroom, his heart having stopped. According to Razsó, the coroner determined that a blood clot had started in Sebestyén’s leg and had become stuck in the heart arteries.
Despite these assertions, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán perpetuated the claim that physical abuse at the hands of Ukraine’s conscription authorities led to Sebestyén’s demise, prompting an outpouring of outrage from across the Fidesz political apparatus, including Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó summoning Ambassador Fegyir to answer for Sebestyén’s death.
On July 17, Szijjártó announced that the government would bar three Ukrainian military officials from entering the country because of their role in the forced conscription practices that led to Sebestyén’s death. While neglecting to name the banned individuals, he said they included the chief of staff of the Ukrainian Ground Forces, the commander of the Western Operational Command and the head of the mobilization directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine.
Szijjártó added that the Hungarian government had submitted a formal request the previous day for the three to be added to the European Union’s sanctions list.
“Until the sanctions are implemented, we have today taken measures to ban all three individuals from entering Hungary,” Szijjártó said. On July 15, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had called on the European Union to include the Ukrainian leaders “responsible for the death of Hungarian national József Sebestyén” on its human rights sanctions list.
During a break in a meeting with his EU counterparts on July 15, Szijjártó took the opportunity to underscore that human rights violations by Ukrainian military recruitment officials had been highlighted in a report released by the Council of Europe’s Commissioner for Human Rights Michael O’Flaherty on July 8.
“Such violations include physical violence, such as beatings, brutal arrests [… and] allegations of torture and death during military recruitment,” the report said.
“The document was compiled by Michael O’Flaherty, the Council of Europe’s commissioner for human rights, who included these findings in the CoE document, that conscription in Ukraine involves death, torture, people getting beaten up and brutality, on the basis of the statements made by the Ukrainian parliament’s human rights commissioner,” Szijjártó said.
“So, it is a fact that there is a manhunt taking place on the streets of Ukraine under the guise of conscription,” he said. “Unfortunately, a Hungarian man fell victim to this brutal Ukrainian manhunt last week.”
This article was first published in the Budapest Business Journal print issue of July 25, 2025.
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