KYIV: Ukraine and Hungary said on Friday they were expelling two diplomats each after each side accused the other of engaging in espionage.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha, writing on the X social media platform, announced the action after Kyiv’s SBU security agency said it had uncovered a spy network run by the Hungarian state to obtain intelligence about its defence.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said Budapest’s expulsion order was in response to what he called Ukrainian “propaganda”.

“Two Hungarian diplomats must leave our country within 48 hours. We have just summoned Hungarian Ambassador to Ukraine and presented him with the relevant note,” Sybiha wrote on X in English.

“We are acting in response to Hungary’s actions, based on the principle of reciprocity and our national interests.” Ukraine’s SBU said in a statement it had detained two suspected agents who, it said, were being run by Hungarian military intelligence.

It was the first time in Ukraine’s history that a Hungarian spy network had been found to be working against Kyiv’s interests, it said.

Hungary is part of the European Union and Nato, two blocs with which Kyiv is closely allied against Russia, but relations between Kyiv and Budapest have often been fraught.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has been sceptical about Western military aid for Ukraine.

He has also maintained relations with Vladimir Putin, putting him at odds with most other EU leaders, who have sought to isolate the Russian president since Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The SBU said the two suspects were former members of Ukraine’s military, were in custody and had been given notice they were under suspicion of committing state treason.

It said they were recruited by a handler in Hungarian military intelligence, and given cash and special equipment for secret communication.

The SBU said the alleged agents were tasked with passing on to their handler details about Ukraine’s air defence batteries, and other military capabilities in the Transcarpathia region of southwestern Ukraine.

Ukraine is home to around 150,000 ethnic Hungarians, most of them in the Transcarpathia region. Orban’s government and Kyiv have clashed over the community’s language rights.

Published in Dawn, May 10th, 2025