Ukraine and Hungary are expelling two diplomats each after both sides accused the other of engaging in espionage.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, writing on X on Friday, announced the action after Kyiv’s SBU security agency said it had uncovered a spy network run by the Hungarian state to obtain intelligence about its defence.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said Budapest’s expulsion order was in response to what he called Ukrainian “propaganda”.
“Two Hungarian diplomats must leave our country within 48 hours,” Sybiha wrote on X. “We are acting in response to Hungary’s actions, based on the principle of reciprocity and our national interests.”
Relations between Kyiv and Budapest have long been strained, but the antipathy has grown amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine’s SBU said in a statement it had detained two suspected agents who, it said, were being run by Hungarian military intelligence.
The activities of the suspected spies were focused on the western Ukraine region of Zakarpattia, which borders Hungary and is home to a sizeable Hungarian ethnic minority. Budapest and Kyiv have clashed over the rights of Hungarians in Zakarpattia, most of which was part of Hungary until the end of World War I.
Sybiha said in a statement that the spy network was tasked with collecting information about the military security of the region, search for vulnerabilities in the region’s ground and air defences and “study the sociopolitical views of local residents, in particular scenarios of their behaviour if Hungarian troops enter the region”.
The SBU said the suspects – a 40-year-old man and a woman – were former members of Ukraine’s military. They were placed in custody on Friday and given notice that they were under suspicion of committing state treason. They both now face up to life in prison, it added.
It was the first time in Ukraine’s history that a Hungarian spy network had been found to be working against Kyiv’s interests, the SBU said.
‘Defamatory acts against Hungary’
Hungary’s Szijjarto did not directly deny the allegations of a Hungarian espionage cell operating in the neighbouring country, but stated that the SBU’s claims could be classified as “anti-Hungarian propaganda” launched by Kyiv in retaliation for Hungary’s refusal to assist Ukraine in its fight against Russia.
“We do not tolerate that Ukraine should continuously launch such defamatory acts against Hungary and the Hungarian people,” Szijjarto said in a Facebook video on Friday.
“Therefore, today we have expelled from Hungary two spies working under diplomatic cover at Ukraine’s embassy in Budapest,” he added.
Hours later, Sybiha announced that the two Hungarian diplomats would be expelled.
Hungary, a member of NATO and the European Union, has taken an adversarial approach to Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion launched on February 24, 2022.
Throughout the Ukraine war, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has delayed Western military aid to Kyiv and maintained warm relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, at odds with his European Union peers.
Orban has used staunch nationalism to build his political base at home, in particular stressing grievances over the territories lost to neighbouring states – including Ukraine – under the Versailles Treaty that ended World War I.
Budapest has berated Kyiv for years, claiming discriminatory actions against the 150,000 or so ethnic Hungarians, most of whom live in the Zakarpattia region.
