Serbia said it discovered "explosives with great destructive power" near a gas pipeline transporting Russian gas to Hungary and other countries.
On April 5, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced that he had been informed by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic about this discovery near an expanded branch of the TurkStream pipeline, a Russian gas transport route through the Balkans to Central and Eastern Europe.
An investigation is underway" - Mr. Orbán shared on social media, and said he had convened an emergency meeting of the defense council.
President Vucic said that the Serbian army and police discovered 2 backpacks containing "2 large packages of explosives with detonators" in the Kanjiza self-governing area in northern Serbia, "only a few hundred meters from the gas pipeline".
He also confirmed that he had informed Mr. Orbán about the initial investigation results related to "the threat to key gas infrastructure". According to him, these explosives could "threaten many lives" and cause serious damage to the pipeline.
However, he did not disclose the origin of the explosives, only saying that there are "some traces" that cannot be disclosed. "Our intelligence agencies have done a good job" - the Serbian leader said.
The incident occurred just a week before Hungarian voters went to vote in the country's parliamentary elections.
Viktor Orbán's main opponent and the ruling Fidesz party in this election is Peter Magyar - former senior official of Fidesz.
On the same day, Mr. Magyar informed on social media that he and the Tisza party had been warned in advance by many sources about the possibility of an incident in Serbia during Easter, "possibly related to the gas pipeline". "And now it has happened," he said.
The election campaign in Hungary has heated up since February, when Mr. Orbán accused Ukraine of planning to sabotage the Hungarian energy system and declared that he had deployed forces to protect energy infrastructure.
Mr. Orbán has also repeatedly accused Ukraine of deliberately delaying the repair of the Druzhba oil pipeline, the Soviet-era oil pipeline that transported Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia through Ukrainian territory. Hungary has also blocked the European Union from approving a 90 billion euro loan package for Ukraine amid tensions.
On the same day, April 5, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto mentioned Ukraine but did not directly blame this country for the latest incident.
