Hungary Won't Oppose Ukrainian Grain Transit to Europe

Péter Magyar said on October 17, 2026 he sees no obstacles to Ukrainian grain simply transiting Hungary. "I said that if it is simply transit through the country's territory, then, of course, there are no obstacles to this," he told RTL after a one-on-one with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Zelenskyy had asked Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Hungary and neighbors during an EU summit plenary to allow transit as three or four years earlier, and said sealed railcars of corn to Western Europe would be a great help. Their first official meeting on October 16, 2026 involved no delegations and covered Ukraine’s EU accession plus completing negotiating clusters 4 and 5 by end of 2026. Magyar thanked Ukraine’s Parliament for recognizing 1944 and 1946 deportation and forced labor of ethnic Hungarians in Transcarpathia. The European Commission projected the EU corn harvest at 50.1 million metric tons, lowest in nearly two decades and about one-fifth below the three-year average, with France and Hungary hit by record heat and drought. Zelenskyy met NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Brussels beforehand.