Hungary Arrests Ex-Ukrainian Diplomat in Broad Daylight as Tensions Soar

Hungary said it had arrested a former Ukrainian diplomat in broad daylight on Friday in downtown Budapest for alleged espionage acts. 

In a video released alongside Saturday’s public statement by Budapest on Facebook, a man in a black jacket could be seen being held face down on the floor, surrounded by armed law enforcement officers in full gear. 

The statement says Hungary’s Counter Terrorism Center (TEK) arrested a “Ukrainian citizen” on Friday for alleged “espionage activities,” adding that the suspect “previously carried out his work under diplomatic cover,” whose diplomatic status has since been revoked. 

“Late yesterday afternoon, TEK officers arrested a Ukrainian citizen in downtown Budapest. The National Directorate of Immigration issued an entry and residence ban on him due to espionage activities,” the statement says. 

“After clarifying the situation, the authority deported the middle-aged man from Hungary during the night, given that his activities greatly endangered the sovereignty of our country. The person concerned previously carried out his work under diplomatic cover, but his official status has now ceased,” it adds. 

The highly publicized arrest came after Ukraine on Friday accused Budapest of operating a spy ring in western Ukraine, particularly regions with ethnic Hungarians, to gauge local reactions to a potential Hungarian invasion. 

Other Topics of Interest

Poland Doesn’t Want to Write Ukraine’s History. It Wants Some Revisions

The dispute between Poland and Ukraine over the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) during World War II has become a conflict over memory, dignity, and the future of Polish-Ukrainian relations. Both sides have expectations. Poland expects recognition that a planned ethnic cleansing campaign against Poles took place. Ukraine expects understanding that the cult of the UPA is primarily anti-Russian in character and is not intended to justify murder. Kyiv Post interviews Polish historian Łukasz Adamski.

Kyiv and Budapest have expelled each other’s diplomats in a tit-for-tat move following the scandal.

However, it is unclear if the suspect in the highly publicized arrest was one of the diplomats Budapest expelled on Friday. 

Kyiv and Budapest have been constantly at odds with each other due to the latter’s pro-Kremlin stance, which often leverages its position in the EU to hinder pro-Kyiv policies and decisions, but the latest spy scandal marked an unprecedented rift between the two nations. 

What happened? 

On Friday, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said Budapest’s national military intelligence agency operated a clandestine spy network in western Ukraine with the mission of determining the level of local support to a possible invasion by Hungarian troops.

The SBU arrested two suspects who were allegedly tasked with collecting sensitive information about the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) installations and units, tracking local officials, and constructing and expanding a local agent network.

The two detainees – a man and a woman – were reportedly supervised by a Hungarian intelligence officer. Both face life imprisonment.

SBU spokesman Artem Dekhtaryenko said the arrests marked the first time Ukrainian counterintelligence had broken up a spy ring from a NATO state.