“Two Hungarian diplomats must leave our country within 48 hours,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on the X social media platform on May 9, after Ukraine’s SBU security services said it had exposed a military intelligence network run by the Hungarian state.
The SBU claimed that it had detained two suspected agents tasked with gathering intelligence about Transcarpathia, which contains a sizable ethnic Hungarian minority. This included information about how well the region was protected by ground and air defenses, and “to study the socio-political views of [the] local population, including scenarios of their behavior if Hungarian troops enter the region,” the security service claimed.
According to the state security agency, it was the first time a Hungarian spy network had been found working against Kyiv’s interests.
“We have just summoned [the] Hungarian Ambassador to MFA [the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of] Ukraine and presented him with the relevant note,” Sybiha wrote in English on X. “We are acting in response to Hungary’s actions, based on the principle of reciprocity and our national interests.” The Hungarian side saw matters in a somewhat different light.
“You cannot believe the Ukrainian regime or its secret service,” László Toroczkai, leader of Hungary’s radical right opposition party Mi Hazánk [Our Homeland], responded. He called for an urgent meeting of Parliament’s national security committee and claimed Ukrainian authorities were making “the same accusations of treason and separatism” that they had against ethnic Hungarian community leader László Brenzovics in 2020.
Brenzovics is president of the Hungarian Cultural Association of Transcarpathia (KMKSz). According to Hungary Today, he was forced to flee his homeland after a series of death threats from Ukrainian nationalists. He also “faced harassment from the Ukrainian authorities” because of his criticism of language laws “that severely restrict the rights of the Hungarian minority in the country.”
Meanwhile, the Hungarian government expelled two individuals working at Ukraine’s embassy in Budapest on suspicion of espionage, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in a video on his Facebook page.
“Anti-Hungarian propaganda in Ukraine is on the rise because we Hungarians want peace and say ‘No’ to war; we have not sent and will not send weapons to Ukraine and […] will not allow Hungary to be dragged into the war,” Szijjártó insisted.
Additionally, Hungary’s Counter-Terrorism Center (TEK) detained a Ukrainian national in downtown Budapest on May 9, who had been banned from entering the country due to espionage activities. TEK said the individual, whose diplomatic status had expired, was questioned and deported overnight because his actions threatened Hungary’s sovereignty.
Amid the heightened tensions, Hungary cancelled a meeting with Ukraine on minority rights scheduled for May 12, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Levente Magyar said in a statement issued on May 11. Magyar said the meeting in Ukraine was called off because the recent developments would preclude “constructive talks in such an important and sensitive matter as minority rights.”
This article was first published in the Budapest Business Journal print issue of May 16, 2025.
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