UKRAINE has accused Hungary of taking seven of its citizens transporting millions in cash and gold.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha made the explosive claims on Friday.
He alleges Hungarian authorities detained bank employees transporting the goods.
“Today in Budapest, Hungarian authorities took seven Ukrainian citizens hostage,” Sybiha wrote on X.
“The reasons are still unknown, as well as their current well-being, or the possibility of contacting them.”
He said the seven Ukrainians were employees of the state-owned Oschadbank who had been travelling between Austria and Ukraine, carrying out routine transfers between state banks.
According to Ukrainian officials, the staff were carrying around $40 million in cash and nine kilograms of gold.
In a statement, Oschadbank said: “According to GPS signal data, the illegally detained Oschadbank vehicles are currently located in the centre of Budapest, near one of the Hungarian law enforcement agencies.”
This comes after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s threatened that Budapest would resort to “force” to pressure Kyiv into restoring Russian oil flow into the EU member state.
“If this is the ‘force’ announced earlier today by Mr Orban, then this is a force of a criminal gang,” Sybiha said.
“This is state terrorism and racketeering.”
Hungary – alongside Slovakia – has demanded Ukraine restore the flow of Russian oil by repairing the Druzhba pipeline running through its territory.
Kyiv has refused to carry out the repairs, insisting it should not be responsible for damage caused by Russia.
Tensions escalated further on Thursday, just days after Hungary’s foreign minister visited Moscow for talks with Vladimir Putin.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán warned that Budapest could “break the Ukrainian oil blockade by force”.
That same day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the pipeline could theoretically be made operational again within “a month to a month-and-a-half”.
“But that does not mean that everything destroyed will be fully restored,” he added.
His remarks suggested Kyiv could still restrict the pipeline’s operation in the future.
Zelensky also escalated the rhetoric, hinting that the Ukrainian military could speak to Orbán “in their own language”.
The latest spat marks the most serious tensions between Budapest and Kyiv since May 2025.
Ukraine uncovered a Hungarian spy network operating inside the country – prompting both sides to expel diplomats.
Hungary remains one of the few European countries to maintain relatively close ties with Russia since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
