Hungary seizes millions of euros in cash and gold from Ukrainian convoy [View all]

Source: The Guardian

An increasingly acrimonious spat between Hungary and Ukraine has escalated further, as Budapest impounded two Ukrainian armoured bank vehicles carrying millions of euros of hard cash as well as bars of gold.

Seven Ukrainian citizens accompanying the convoy were also arrested. Hungarian officials said the detained Ukrainians had intelligence links and suggested the money could be of dubious origin, while Ukraine’s foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, accused Budapest of “taking hostages and stealing money”.

Sybiha also accused the pro-Russian Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, of cooking up the scandal for political gain, ahead of Hungarian elections next month.

Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/mar/06/hungary-seizes-millions-euros-cash-gold-ukrainian-convoy

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Orban is desperate. The Hungarian elections are in April and he is down, from the latest polling I've seen, by double digit percentages. So what does the despot do? He kidnaps a Ukrainian bank convoy in an attempt to drum up an anti-Ukrainian controversy. Well into the future, Ukrainians will not look kindly upon Hungary and who can blame them? IMHO, Orban is making himself look like a doofus.

Another link on this issue from the Ukrainian Press Office of Ukrinform: https://www.ukrinform.net/rubric-polytics/4098764-detention-of-ukrainians-in-hungary-is-part-of-orbans-blackmail-and-election-campaign-says-sybiha.html