Hungary will block "all steps within the European Union that would represent a step forward in Ukraine’s European integration process in the spirit of the Eastern Partnership programme", Hungary’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto told Hungarian news agency MTI on September 26.

Hungary’s outburst followed Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's decision to sign a new education law on September 25, which was approved earlier by the country's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada.

According to the Hungarian authorities, the new law reduces the rights of minorities to receive education in their native languages. There are some 150,000 ethnic Hungarians living in the western part of the country. The government has made it a priority to support financially the cultural and educational institutions of ethnic minorities living in Hungary’s neighbours.

According to the new legislation in the future children from national minorities will be taught all subjects in Ukrainian from the fifth grade upwards (age 10). Poland and Romania have also expressed concern about the norms of the new law, which was mainly targeted at the Russian-speaking population living in the eastern regions of Ukraine. The Russian parliament has called the law an "act of ethnocide” and spoke out against the "forced assimilation” of the local Russian speakers.

"We can guarantee that all this will be painful for Ukraine in the future", Szijjarto said regarding Hungary’s response to the signing of the new legislation, speaking from Singapore, where he arrived as part of an official delegation headed by Prime Minister Viktor Orban.

Szijjarto issued a directive under which Hungarian diplomats would not support any initiative by Ukraine in international organisations or decisions benefiting that country. Hungary will raise the subject at UN, OSCE and EU forums, he said.  Hungary's foreign minister has summoned the ambassador of Ukraine to outline Hungary’s objections to the country's “shameful and disgraceful” education law amendment impacting minorities.

According to Szijjártó, it is “shameful and outrageous” that the Ukrainian president has signed the law. He added that until now, Poroshenko had spoken about the fact that he wants to take Ukraine closer to Europe, but with today’s decision "he has moved further away from Europe and taken a huge step in the opposite direction".

"At the currently ongoing session of the United Nations Human Rights Council, Hungary will veto all EU comments or viewpoints that that do not condemn Ukraine with sufficient force and determination", Szijjarto added.

"Ukraine has to understand that this was no way to get closer to the EU. We won’t allow it,”  Orban said in a radio interview on September 22, speaking about the issue for the first time. 

"The new act Ukraine has violated several international agreements while pledging to move closer to the community of European nations", the Hungarian Hman Resources Ministry said.

The deputy head of Ukraine's presidential administration, Kostiantyn Yeliseyev, believes that Hungary's "hysterical statements" on the Ukrainian education law are related to the parliamentary elections that will take place in this country next year, as well as the fact that "Hungary wants to divert attention from its current problems in relations with the EU, particularly in the context of migration issues", Interfax news agency reported on September 26.

Zenon Zawada at Kyiv-based brokerage Concorde Capital wrote in a research note on September 27 that Hungary’s hostile gesture "is in coordination with the Kremlin, which is exploiting the Ukrainian government’s reasonable attempts to consolidate its multi-ethnic society under a common language".

"Ties between Russia and Hungary’s nationalist government tightened this year following a meeting with the nations’ two leaders in February," the expert added.

Earlier the government also passed a law that sets a minimum quota on broadcasters for Ukrainian-language programming.