Hungary to expel seven Ukrainian citizens for transporting money and gold

Hungary seizes Ukrainian vehicles carrying cash and gold

Escalating tensions between Hungary and Ukraine has intensified after Hungarian authorities impounded two Ukrainian bank vehicles transporting millions of euros in cash and gold bars across the country. Seven Ukrainian citizens accompanying the convoy were detained. Hungarian officials said those arrested had intelligence links and suggested the funds might be of questionable origin. Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, accused Budapest of “taking hostages", while also alleging that Viktor Orbán had manufactured the scandal for political gain ahead of Hungary’s elections next month.

Hungary’s national tax and customs administration said it had launched a money-laundering investigation into the shipment, which it said contained $40m, €35m in cash and 9kg of gold, adding that one of those detained was a former Ukrainian intelligence general. Ukraine’s state savings bank, Oschadbank, said its staff had been transporting the money between Austria and Ukraine on a "routine trip", carried out by road because of restrictions on air travel during the war. Orbán’s political director, Balázs Orbán, questioned the legitimacy of the shipment, writing on X that armoured vehicles carrying large amounts of cash and gold were not typical of normal financial transactions.

EU should rely less on unanimity after Hungary veto, Dutch PM says

Dutch prime minister Rob Jetten has called for the European Union to move away from unanimity in decision-making, pointing to Hungary’s last-minute veto of a €90bn loan to Ukraine as evidence of the system’s shortcomings. Speaking during his first trip to Brussels since taking office, Jetten said the new Dutch government favoured reducing the number of decisions requiring unanimous approval at EU level. “This is a clear example of why that is important because we cannot explain to our constituents that Europe is sometimes way too slow in reacting to great issues that affect us all,” he told reporters.

Jetten urged Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, to respect the agreement reached by EU leaders in December after lengthy negotiations. Under that compromise, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic agreed to support changes to EU budget rules in exchange for being exempted from joint borrowing. Orbán’s veto relates to the suspension of Russian oil supplies through the Druzhba pipeline, which Kyiv says was damaged in a Russian drone attack on 27 January and has not resumed operations. Orbán, however, has accused Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy of deliberately shutting down the pipeline for political reasons ahead of Hungary’s elections. The European Commission has called on Kyiv to repair the pipeline and on Budapest to lift its veto, while Hungary and Slovakia have proposed a fact-finding mission to inspect the damaged section.

European Commission says Zelensky’s remarks about Orbán are unacceptable

The European Commission has rebuked Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky over his remarks widely interpreted as a threat against prime minister Viktor Orbán.

Zelensky said on Thursday: “We hope that one person in the European Union will not block the 90billion euros, otherwise we will give this person’s address to our armed forces. Let them call him and talk to him in their own language.” Hungary took offence at the comments amid an intensifying dispute between the two countries.

Responding on Friday, the European Commission criticised the language used by the Ukrainian leader. “Specifically in relation to the comments made by President Zelenskyy, we are very clear as the European Commission that that type of language is not acceptable. There must not be threats against EU member states,” the commission’s deputy chief spokesperson, Olof Gill, told reporters, in a rare public condemnation of the leader in Kyiv.