By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent, Worthy News
KYIV/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Ukraine claims to have busted a Hungarian spy ring operating on its territory that collected intelligence for a possible Hungarian invasion of the country.
Hungary’s Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó dismissed the accusations as “propaganda” and announced in response the expulsion of two Ukrainian “spies working under diplomatic cover” at the Ukrainian embassy in Budapest.
Hungarian officials have accused Ukraine of starting “a secret operation” this year to discredit Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. A Ukrainian spy drone was reportedly spotted in Hungarian airspace, and Kiev allegedly prepared a sabotage operation in Budapest, aimed at Russian interests.
Yet opposition figures accuse the government of Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, viewed as a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, of driving Hungary into a war with Ukraine.
Ahead of Friday’s spy allegations, Hungary’s opposition leaked an explosive audio recording that caused political upheaval in this NATO military alliance member state.
The recording, made in April 2023 and published by prominent opposition leader Péter Magyar—whose previous leaks have often been verified—features Hungarian Defense Minister Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky discussing sweeping military reforms.
“The fifth Orbán government has decided to build a truly effective, combat-ready Hungarian armed force,” Szalay-Bobrovniczky said in the recording heard by Worthy News. He added, “We will break with the peace mentality.”
DISMISSING OFFICERS
The minister revealed plans to dismiss many NATO-trained senior officers under the guise of “rejuvenation,” replacing them with individuals more aligned with the ruling Fidesz party. The aim, he reportedly said, is to “break with the peace mentality and move toward the zero phase of the path that leads to war.”
The leaked remarks—if authentic—take on new significance following Ukraine’s claims that Hungarian intelligence agents were sent to assess how the country’s western region, Transcarpathia might react to a Hungarian invasion.
Transcarpathia mainly was part of the Kingdom of Hungary till 1920, and the loss of the territory after World War I remains an open wound among Hungarians.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said it detained two Ukrainian military veterans as part of its crackdown on a Hungarian spy ring operating in the area, also known as Zakarpattia in Ukraine.
SBU officials claimed the spy network engaged in collecting information on military defences in the western part of Ukraine as well as sentiment among the local population. It published a video interrogation of one of the detainees in handcuffs, with his face blurred.
The SBU said the spy ring was run by a “staff officer of Hungarian military intelligence” and that the operation aimed to uncover information about vulnerabilities in Ukraine’s defence of western regions.
It claimed that one of the detainees, a 40-year-old veteran from the western Ukrainian town of Berehove, which has a majority ethnic Hungarian population, had been recruited in 2021 as “a sleeper agent.”
COLLECTING INFORMATION
It said he was “activated” by a handler in 2024 and asked to collect information. It is alleged that at a meeting in Hungary, the man received a cash payment for providing information, as well as to help recruit more people to the network of informants.
A second suspect, a woman with a past in the security services, was allegedly involved in collecting military information.
“By forming an agent network, foreign intelligence hoped to expand the range of information collection, including obtaining data from frontline and frontline regions,” the SBU said.
The two detained suspects face charges of high treason, which could result in life imprisonment.
The spy scandal and Hungary’s reported military plans to invade western Ukraine unfold amid an ongoing dispute between Kyiv and Budapest over the region of Transcarpathia, home to a Hungarian minority of up to 150,000 people.
Since 2017, Ukraine has significantly curtailed the right to use the Hungarian language in the area.
In response, Hungary began distributing Hungarian passports to ethnic Hungarians in Ukraine—an act that drew strong disapproval from Kyiv.
BARGAINING CHIP
Budapest has been accused of using minority rights as “a geopolitical bargaining chip,” echoing Russia’s narrative regarding its minorities in Ukraine.
Additionally, Ukraine’s leadership suggested that Hungary seems eager to regain control of Transcarpathia, as it had for centuries.
The revelations came as European leaders gathered Saturday in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv to remember the soldiers killed following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
After phone talks with U.S. President Donald J. Trump, they agreed on a 30-day ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia to allow for peace talks. Moscow has so far refused to implement a truce.
The call by European Union leaders including French President Emmanuel Macron, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Prime Minister Keir Starmer of non-EU member Britain seemed to undermine the Hungarian government’s communication campaign.
Large posters in the streets of Hungary and television and social media confront citizens with a government-sponsored pro-Russia message: “Evil Brussels drives the war” and undermines “peaceful” Hungary. The Hungarian opposition is portrayed as “a puppet” of the EU.
Yet with the EU seeking peace, opposition leader Magyar, whose Tisza party is leading in opinion polls, urged Prime Minister Orbán to support the effort.
RUSSIA FRIENDLY
Magyar suggested that Orbán, seen as the European Union’s most Russia-friendly leader, could pressure Putin to agree on the proposed 30-day truce. “Viktor Orbán must immediately call on Russian president Putin to accept the ceasefire. Now it will finally be decided whether the war and lying government of Viktor Orbán is waiting for the end of the war or its continuation,” Magyar wrote on social media.
“This is the last moment when the Hungarian Prime Minister can still re-assess among Hungary’s natural and legal allies,” Magyar stressed.
He added: “War or peace? There is no third option, Comrade Prime Minister!” Magyar claimed that his Tisza party, named after Hungary’s second-largest river, is the party of peace. “This is the interest of the war parties. This is the interest of Europe.”
Amid the tensions, sources said diplomatic talks between Ukraine and Hungary started on Friday.
The negotiations are said to be taking place amid “a secret rivalry” between the Hungarian and Ukrainian intelligence services.
It was unclear whether these talks would also lead to the defrosting of the Hungary-Ukraine relationship that currently resembles a new Cold War.
Copyright 1999-2025 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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