You're reading: SBU confirms ban on entering Ukraine for four members of Hungarian nationalist party

The Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), has confirmed that deputy leader and the chairman of the party's national policy cabinet of the Hungarian radical nationalist party Jobbik, Istvan Szavay, and three other members of his party have been banned from entering Ukraine.

“Four members of the party, including its chairman, have been banned from entering Ukraine,” SBU spokesperson Olena Hitlianska told Interfax-Ukraine on Dec. 25.

Hungarian media earlier reported that Szavay was unable to cross the Ukrainian border. Szavay has repeatedly stated that one of Jobbik’s objectives is to create Rusyn-Hungarian autonomy in Zakarpattia region of Ukraine. In addition, representatives of the party were present as observers at the illegal “referendum” in Crimea, and so-called “elections” in Luhansk and Donetsk self-proclaimed people’s republics.

Earlier, several members of Jobbik, including Szavay, were banned from entering Romania for one year.

Rusyns, also known as Carpatho-Rusyns or Ruthenes, are an ethnic group who live in Ukraine’s Zakarpattia region, eastern Slovakia, Serbia’s autonomous province of Vojvodina, south-eastern Poland, Hungary, and north-western Romania.