The Hungarian government will declassify a national security report related to allegations that a politician in this country received illegal funding from Ukraine. On March 12, Hungarian Prime Minister's Chief of Staff Gergely Gulyás said that the declassification process is underway" and the report will be released "in the near future".
Previously, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán accused Ukraine of sponsoring politician Péter Magyar of the Tisza party. In an interview on commercial television ATV last week, the Hungarian leader accused Ukraine of providing the Tisza with "significant" money to develop information technology applications and serve voter mobilization efforts.
Mr. Orbán added that this information is "not a hypothesis, but the truth" that he saw in the report of the Hungarian National Security Committee. He encouraged journalists to request the disclosure of the report. "I don't think the state will hide this information from you" - Mr. Orbán said.
For his part, Mr. Magyar, a 44-year-old lawyer, denied the charges.
Prime Minister Orbán's government strongly opposes EU financial and military aid to Ukraine and declares its veto on any EU moves towards Ukraine joining the bloc.
Recently, Hungary vetoed a new round of EU sanctions against Russia and blocked a large loan of 90 billion VND for Ukraine to retaliate against the disruption of Russian oil transportation through the Druzhba oil pipeline.
Mr. Orbán has also deployed military forces to key energy infrastructure locations across Hungary, accusing Ukraine of plotting to disrupt these facilities.
Last week, Hungary arrested 7 employees of the Ukrainian state bank and confiscated two armored vehicles carrying 40 million USD, 35 million euros and 9kg of gold. Bank employees were deported to Ukraine after more than 1 day of detention.
On March 10, the Hungarian Parliament passed a law proposed by Mr. Orbán's Fidesz party allowing tax authorities to keep money and gold for 60 days during the investigation of the origin and destination of the assets as well as assessing the impact of this gold money on Hungary's national security.
On March 12, Hungary returned 2 armored vehicles carrying money to Ukraine but kept cash and gold on the grounds of investigating money laundering allegations.
In the context that Hungary is still vetoing the loan to Ukraine, the European Commission has officially proposed an inspection to check the damage on the Druzhba oil pipeline, the focus of the dispute.
We are discussing and actively contacting Ukraine on this issue, as deployed in recent weeks. We propose a delegation to Ukraine to inspect the pipeline," a spokesman for the committee said.
Kiev has not yet responded to the official request made by the committee on March 12. Brussels affirmed that it must receive Kiev's approval before it can determine the scope and purpose of the delegation. The inspection team may include representatives from energy agencies of the European Commission, member states, Ukraine and the private sector.
On March 11, a 4-member delegation from Budapest entered Ukraine to visit the Druzhba pipeline. Kiev considered this delegation to be "tourists" and refused to survey the Druzhba pipeline. On March 11, President Volodymyr Zelensky said "I don't know what the Hungarians are doing in Ukraine.
