Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, on Monday slammed remarks by the European Union's foreign policy chief on the situation of ethnic Hungarians in Ukraine as "one of the most offensive utterances" he had heard during his time as minister.

Speaking at a news conference after a meeting of the EU's Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels, Minister Szijjártó said he had raised the issue of the treatment of ethnic Hungarians in Ukraine, insisting that Ukraine was refusing to restore the rights of the Hungarian community because it believed Brussels would "put enough pressure on Hungary for it to back down from its protest".

Minister Szijjártó said the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, had responded to his address, saying that the EU "defends minority rights within the European Union, not outside it".

The minister slammed Kallas’s remark as "outrageous", saying it went to show that Ukraine "mustn’t be allowed to take a single step forward in the accession process until it fully restores the rights of the Hungarian minority".

"No amount of pressure from Brussels can force us to give up our stance on the protection of Transcarpathian Hungarians," Minister Szijjártó said.