There are two sounds to hear on the banks of the River Tisza that divides Hungary and Ukraine. Firstly, there are the fluting calls of songbirds and the quacks of waterfowl along the river's snowy, wooded shores.

Then there is the border traffic: the choking of cargo trains and truck engines.

This is Zahony. It is close to Slovakia and is also on the border with Ukraine, which lies on the opposite banks of the Tisza. It is quiet in Zahony for now, but there is growing regional noise surrounding Ukraine.

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For the town's mayor, it is the issue of refugees coming in from Ukraine that concerns him most.

"The region has a plan for catastrophic situations," Laszlo Helmeczi told CGTN Europe. "Our town has facilities to house refugees but only a few hundred people, not thousands.

"This will not be the responsibility only of the town as we would need the help of government institutions."

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Gergo Toth owns a restaurant in the town. He says a conflict involving Hungary's neighbor would have consequences at home.

"We are afraid, we hear in the media that a lot of people could come here," says Gergo.

"We already spoke about it at the restaurant: what will the consequences be? We live here, we have a family house, we hope for the best but we don't know."

For other Zahony residents, there is concern, but also hope.

"I'm not afraid of the war. I think it will happen but I'm not worried because I know the troops are on our side and they will defend us," says one woman, sweeping the pavements of the town's main street.

Hungary is a member of the European Union and NATO - but Hungary's Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, also has a close relationship with Russian's President Vladimir Putin.

The EU is preparing what it calls "heavy consequences" for any Russian invasion of Ukraine, but Orban says sanctions and threats are not the way to end the crisis.

Hungary is one of four EU member states that have a border with Ukraine, meaning Brussels is paying close attention to the situation here.

Leaders have been holding high-level diplomatic talks for weeks but it is frontier communities like Zahony that are the places which would feel the real effects of a Russian invasion of Ukraine.