The paper compares the political responses of Hungary, Poland and Romania to the Ukraine war and the implications thereof on ethnic minorities in Ukraine. The paper has three aims. First, to assess if and how the three countries’ kin-state strategy was influenced and informed by broader geopolitical objectives.  Second, the paper will also try to gauge the long-term implications of the three kin-states’ politics in the Ukraine war on ethnic kin populations in Ukraine. Third, through the presented comparative analysis, the paper will point out the shortcomings of the triadic and quadratic nexus models in explaining variations and dynamics of kin-related interstate and interethnic struggles