The Mazovian Department of the National Prosecutor’s Office of Poland brought the case file to court against three Polish citizens, who on Feb. 4, 2018, carried out the burning of the house of Zakarpattia Society of Hungarian Culture in Uzhgorod, a border city of 114,000 people located 740 kilometers west of Kyiv.
According to the Polish news agency TVP.info, three Polish citizens are charged with terrorism. The investigation concluding that the perpetrators received 1,000 zlotys ($267) from a German journalist who most likely acted on instructions from Russia’s intelligence services.
The name of the German journalist wasn’t mentioned by TVP.info
“It was a provocation that was supposed to lead to the deterioration of Ukrainian-Hungarian relations. It was in the hands of Russia, which is interested in destabilizing its western neighbor, where there is already a hybrid war in the Donbas,” said an officer of the Polish Internal Security Agency who investigated the case, according to TVP.info.
According to the news agency, the prosecution believes that a suspect – only named as “Michal P.,” and allegedly associated with the Polish far-right organization Falanga, recruited two other Poles – identified as “Adrian M.” and “Tomasz Sh.,” gave them money to buy accelerants, mobile phones, SIM cards, and jackets. The attackers had to record the arson on video and send it to “Michal P.” to prove the success of the operation.
The Kyiv Post wrote about the incident back in March, citing the Zakarpattia Oblast Governor Hennady Moskal, who identified the attackers as Adrian Marglewski, 22, and Tomasz Rafal Szymkowiak, 25, members of the Polish far-right organization Falanga.
Bartosz Bekier, the leader of Falanga during the time of the incident, answering the Kyiv Post’s questions in March, confirmed that the two Polish arrestees are associated with the organization, yet stated that they will be expelled from the movement if their involvement is proven.
However, Anton Shekhovtsov, Austrian-based political expert, author of the book Russia and the Western Far Right, wrote on his Facebook page that the organization has serious ties with Russia. Shekhovstsov said that the operation was performed as an anti-Ukrainian false-flag operation, aided by Russian intelligence through a German proxy.
“In short: a Polish far-right activist hired two Polish thugs who would go to Western Ukraine and attack a Hungarian cultural center posing as Ukrainian nationalists in order to poison relations between Hungary and Ukraine even further,” wrote Shekhovtsov.
The incident occurred in the wake of Ukraine’s adoption of a language law that requires Ukrainian language studies in school for everyone, including minorities, rather than instruction in foreign languages. People are free to study other languages, however.
The law caused severe dissatisfaction among Ukraine’s Hungarian minority. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has threatened to block Ukraine’s further integration with the European Union and NATO as long as the law remains in force.
