Prime Minister Péter Magyar announced on June 17 that he had ordered an internal investigation into the agencies involved in the March 5 seizure of two armored Oschadbank vehicles transporting USD 40 million in notes, EUR 35 mln, and nine kilograms of gold through Budapest.
“We have ordered an immediate internal investigation at the National Tax and Customs Administration, the Counter Terrorism Center, and the other relevant authorities in connection with the Ukrainian ‘gold convoy’ case,” Magyar wrote on X. “The Prosecutor General must address the matter without delay.”
Hungarian media reporting has indicated that former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán personally ordered the raid during the final stretch of the April election campaign, in what appeared to be an attempt to link the convoy to Magyar’s Tisza Party. The narrative failed to gain traction, and Tisza won a two-thirds parliamentary majority on April 12.
The Magyar government returned the seized assets to Ukraine in May and lifted the three-year Schengen entry bans imposed on the seven Oschadbank employees. Ukraine has called for a full investigation into the circumstances of the detention and compensation for physical harm and emotional distress suffered by the personnel.
On the same day Magyar ordered the investigation, Hungary’s Ambassador to Ukraine Fedir Sándor told European Pravda that the government would repeal its ban on Ukrainian media outlets. Two days later, Minister of Social Relations and Culture Zoltán Tarr confirmed the decision, announcing on Facebook that Hungary had lifted the September 2025 ban on 12 Ukrainian news websites, including Ukrainska Pravda and European Pravda.
Orbán’s Fidesz government had imposed the restrictions after Kyiv blocked several pro-Fidesz Hungarian outlets it accused of spreading Russian propaganda.
“The ousted government constantly worked on digging trenches, and blocking these publications had no other purpose,” Tarr wrote on Facebook. “Our task is to build good-neighborly relations, which helps the situation of Hungarians abroad.”
Tarr said the decision was coordinated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and with Liliána Grexa, the parliamentary spokesperson for Hungary’s Ukrainian national minority, who had initiated the proposal. Grexa said access to Ukrainian-language news was important for both the Ukrainian national minority community and refugees living in Hungary. Ukraine has not announced a reciprocal lifting of its restrictions on the Hungarian outlets.
Meanwhile, at the European Council summit on June 18, Magyar and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met for the first time on the sidelines of the leaders’ meeting in Brussels. They discussed a potential bilateral summit, with Magyar proposing the Transcarpathian city of Berehove (known to Hungarian speakers as Beregszász), but Zelenskyy favoring a different venue. No date or location was agreed upon.
During the summit, Magyar pushed to remove the phrase “as soon as possible” from the European Council conclusions regarding the opening of additional accession clusters with Ukraine and Moldova. The change came after four hours of debate on the Ukraine section of the text. He presented the result as a contrast with his predecessor’s approach.
“That’s how it can be done, if someone comes not just to flip tables and sow fear, but strives to find a compromise,” Magyar wrote on Facebook.
On June 23, Hungary went further, blocking the circulation of a joint letter from all 27 EU member states that would have outlined the bloc’s common position on the next phase of accession talks. Hungary was the only country to oppose the letter, which requires unanimous approval.
Magyar told reporters that opening all six negotiating clusters at once would be premature. “There are six clusters in total, and we don’t think opening them all at once is a good idea, partly because the ink on the first one isn’t even dry yet, and partly because it would send the wrong message to the countries of the Western Balkans,” he said, referring to Serbia, Albania, Montenegro, and North Macedonia, whose own membership bids have been pending for years.
The EU has since scaled back its ambitions from opening five clusters before the summer break to two: Cluster 2 on the internal market and Cluster 6 on external relations. The earliest opportunity for a formal opening is a July 14 meeting of European affairs ministers in Brussels. Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Taras Kachka responded that all five remaining clusters are ready and that Kyiv is targeting EU accession by 2030.
This article was first published in the Budapest Business Journal print issue of July 3, 2026.
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