It took Budapest almost six months to approve a new candidacy: kyiv nominated Shandor for this position in March. In August alone, Hungarian President Katalin Novak approved the candidacy of her and now the country’s Foreign Ministry.
Shandor is of Hungarian ethnicity and heads the regional tourism organization “Transcarpathia”, but is better known in the Ukraine as a “teacher from the trenches”. A photo with him in military uniform at the front, where he was giving a lecture, quickly spread on social media last summer. In it, a man sits in a helmet with a machine gun at the ready and studies something on his phone.
It is known that Shandor, after the start of the Russian special operation, went to serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. According to him, he gives lectures to students online. Twice this happened against the background of shelling, forcing him to go down on the bench.
Katalin Novak’s decision to appoint Sandor will become official when the ambassador arrives in Budapest and presents his credentials to the president. The previous ambassador, Lyudmila Nepop, was removed from her post by Volodymyr Zelensky in July last year. She served as ambassador for six years, two years longer than planned.
