Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
| Photograph Credit score: Reuters
Ukraine accused Hungary on Friday (March 6, 2026) of “taking hostage” seven staff of its state financial savings financial institution who had been carrying round $82 million in money and gold, as Budapest vowed to cease transit shipments to the war-torn nation amid an oil dispute.
Kyiv and Budapest are locked in an more and more bitter row over an outage of the Druzhba pipeline which provides Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia. They’re the one EU international locations nonetheless importing Russian oil on account of EU sanctions.
Ukrainian International Minister Andrii Sybiha mentioned the workers of Oschadbank had been transporting money from Austria again to Ukraine through Hungary after they had been detained. He mentioned their whereabouts had been at the moment unknown.
“In truth, we’re speaking about Hungary taking hostages and stealing cash,” Mr. Sybiha wrote on X. “That is state terrorism and racketeering.”
He mentioned Ukraine had despatched an official notice demanding the fast launch of its residents and would ask the European Union to “present a transparent qualification of Hungary’s illegal actions”.
The Hungarian International Ministry, police and a authorities spokesperson didn’t instantly reply to requests for feedback.
Individually, the Telex information website reported on Friday (March 6) that Hungary’s anti-terrorism forces had raided two cash-in-transit automobiles with Ukrainian licence plates on a freeway. There was no fast official affirmation of the report.
Orban vows extra strain on Kyiv
Hungary and Slovakia accuse Ukraine of intentionally delaying the resumption of oil flows through the broken Druzhba pipeline for political causes. Kyiv denies the cost, saying it wants time to restore the injury brought about to vitality infrastructure by a Russian drone strike on January 27.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who faces a severe problem to his 16-year rule in an election on April 12, has vetoed new European Union sanctions on Moscow in addition to an enormous EU mortgage for Ukraine over the oil dispute.
Mr. Orban once more accused Kyiv on Friday (March 6) of blackmail and mentioned Hungary would use all means at its disposal till oil flows resume.
“Now we have stopped… diesel exports to Ukraine, we nonetheless preserve energy exports, and we’ll cease transit shipments going by way of Hungary which might be essential for Ukraine… till we get Ukraine’s approval for the oil shipments,” Mr. Orban instructed state radio. He didn’t discuss with the detention of the financial institution staff.
GPS sign
The Ukrainian financial savings financial institution mentioned its staff had been carrying $40 million, 35 million euros and 9 kg of gold. It mentioned a GPS sign confirmed their automobiles had been now close to a constructing of Hungary’s safety providers in Budapest.
“The transportation of funds and valuables was carried out by Oschadbank inside the framework of and in accordance with a world settlement with Raiffeisen Financial institution, Austria,” Oschadbank mentioned in an announcement.
“The cargo was cleared in accordance with worldwide transportation guidelines and relevant European customs procedures.”
Raiffeisen Worldwide, when contacted by Reuters, declined to touch upon the matter, citing banking secrecy guidelines.
Printed – March 06, 2026 04:02 pm IST