Ukraine said Friday it had exposed a network of Hungarian spies trying to obtain defense secrets in a border region of Ukraine – the first time it said such an operation has been discovered.
The Security Services of Ukraine (SBU) said it had detained two Hungarian special services agents, whom it claims were reporting to a handler in Hungarian military intelligence and were looking for ground and air defense vulnerabilities in the southwestern Zakarpattia region, which borders Hungary.
“Comprehensive measures are currently underway to bring all members of the Hungarian intelligence network to justice,” said the statement.
The news triggered a series of diplomatic tit-for-tats on Friday.
Hungary responded to the arrests by expelling two of the staff at the Ukrainian embassy in Budapest.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on his Facebook page that two spies who had been working “under diplomatic cover” at the embassy were ordered to leave.
Later Friday, Ukraine summoned the Hungarian ambassador and ordered two diplomats to leave the country within 48 hours.
“We are acting in response to Hungary’s actions, based on the principle of reciprocity and our national interests,” Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha said on social media.
Ukraine and Hungary are at odds over the conflict between Ukraine and Russia and Ukrainian accession to the European Union. Hungary has also criticized European sanctions against Moscow.
The Hungarian government has also frequently complained that the ethnic Hungarian minority in Zakarpattia is discriminated against.
“The past three years have shown that the war in Ukraine is being fought not only on the battlefield, but also in the information space. Anti-Hungarian propaganda is often used without any factual basis,” Szijjarto said in a post on X in response to the arrests.
Speaking to reporters, Szijjarto said: “If we receive any details or official information, then we will be able to deal with this. Until then, I must classify this as propaganda that must be handled with caution.”
“We will not tolerate smear campaigns against Hungary and the Hungarian people,” he said, before alleging that “anti-Hungarian propaganda has intensified,” since the start of the war.
“We haven’t let Hungary be dragged into this war — and we won’t. That’s exactly why we keep being targeted,” Szijjarto said.
Ukraine’s SBU said the Hungarian spies were tasked with gathering information about the military security and studying the views of residents and “behavior scenarios” if Hungarian troops entered Zakarpattia.
The SBU alleged that one man from Berehove in Zakarpattia was recruited in 2021 and “activated” last September. It accused him of collecting information on the location of Ukrainian defense systems, including its S-300 anti-aircraft missile system in the region.
It also alleged he had attempted to recruit two other men as he tried to establish a “network of informants.”
The second person detained, a woman who left her unit in Ukraine’s Security and Defense Forces this year, had been tasked with informing the Hungarian special services about the defense systems of her unit and informing on the presence of aircraft and helicopters in the Zakarpattia region, the SBU claimed.
The Zakarpattia region stayed part of Ukraine after the breakup of the Soviet Union. The region was once part of the former Kingdom of Hungary and later Czechoslovakia.
According to a census in 2001, just over 150,000 ethnic Hungarians lived in the region, but the number is widely thought to have declined since then. Last year, representatives of the Hungarian-speaking community criticized a draft Ukrainian law that would have restricted the use of Hungarian in schools by allowing it to be used only in classroom activities and not outside classroom settings.
The two countries had disagreements over Hungary’s 2011 decision to relax its naturalization procedures and allow anyone who can speak Hungarian and has Hungarian ancestry to gain citizenship – even if they have never stepped a foot in the country. Tens of thousands of Ukrainians were granted Hungarian passports since then, despite Ukraine not allowing dual citizenship.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has opposed Ukraine’s accession to the EU in part because of claims that ethnic Hungarians in western Ukraine face discrimination.
Orban has remained on good terms with Moscow throughout the conflict and has opposed the growing raft of EU sanctions against Russia as well as EU aid packages for Ukraine.
On Wednesday, Orban said EU President Ursula von der Leyen “wants to pour further billions into Ukraine, pull Europe further into a losing war, and rush a bankrupt state into the EU.”
“Hungary won’t go along with this,” he said.
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