Budapest expels diplomats after Ukraine detains alleged Hungarian spies
Hungary said Friday that it expelled two Ukrainian diplomats, accusing them of spying, after Ukraine's SBU security service said it detained two alleged Hungarian spies.
Relations between Kyiv and Budapest remain cold as Hungary's nationalist leader, Viktor Orban, openly sided with Moscow after it invaded Ukraine three years ago and refused to send Ukraine military aid. Orban has also opposed Kyiv's bid to join the European Union.
Ukraine's SBU security service said Friday it had detained two alleged Hungarian spies it accused of gathering intelligence, including the location of air defence systems, in the western Zakarpattia region bordering Hungary.
'For the first time in Ukraine's history, the Security Service has exposed a Hungarian military intelligence network that was conducting espionage activities to the detriment of our state,' the SBU said in a statement, adding that 'two agents' had been detained.
The SBU said the suspects were a 40-year-old man and a woman, both ex-soldiers, and that they were supervised by a Hungarian intelligence officer.
They both now face up to life in prison, it added.
Hungary reacted by expelling 'two spies working under diplomatic cover at the Ukrainian Embassy in Budapest,' according to Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto.
He slammed Ukraine's investigation as 'the latest smear campaign.'
'We will not tolerate the constant launching of such smear campaigns against Hungary and the Hungarian people in Ukraine,' Szijjarto said in a video posted on Facebook, slamming 'growing anti-Hungarian propaganda.'
Ukraine's security service alleged the man had received cash from the Hungarian officer and tried to recruit at least two people as informants.
Apart from gathering information about the military, the agents also had to study 'the socio-political views of local residents, in particular, scenarios of their behaviour if Hungarian troops entered the region,' the secret service added.
According to the last official census in 2001, around 150,000 ethnic Hungarians lived in Ukraine's Zakarpattia region.
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