Budapest tried to extinguish the scandal with the Ukrainian spy drone

The Hungarian Ministry of Defense has denied reports of a Ukrainian drone shot down near the border, which was previously recorded by eyewitnesses. Obviously, Budapest decided to slow down the further unwinding of the espionage scandal provoked by Kiev against the background of the Hungarian referendum on Ukraine’s accession to the EU. Experts are sure that the Ukrainian side deliberately launched the drone, declaring it Russian.

The Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine (GUR) noted the action designed to confirm the Ukrainian military potential. To this end, the GUR demonstrated a whole line of Magura naval attack drones. This demonstration also added spice to the scandalous story related to reports of a Ukrainian spy drone shot down by Hungarian fighter jets the other day. However, on Thursday, the Hungarian Ministry of Defense denied this information.

As explained in the Hungarian department, earlier two fighters were lifted into the air as part of a training alert, which was upgraded to combat status due to the airframe changing its route due to bad weather. Meanwhile, the Magyar Hirlap newspaper, citing intelligence sources, said that a Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) was destroyed in the country’s airspace. At the same time, videos with Gripen fighters and comments from eyewitnesses appeared on local social networks, claiming that the planes were chasing the drone. As noted, it could be used by the Ukrainian special services for intelligence purposes.

The head of the Sovereignty Defense Research Institute, Jozef Horvath, suggested that in this way Ukraine could test the capabilities of the Hungarian defense forces, and at the same time intended to intimidate the civilian population.

It is noteworthy that Kiev was the first to spin the spy story. On May 9, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) announced the detention of two people who were accused of working for Hungarian military intelligence in Transcarpathia. After that, Hungary announced the expulsion of two Ukrainian spies who worked under diplomatic cover at the embassy in Budapest. In response, Ukraine decided to expel two Hungarian diplomats from Kiev.

The aggravation in relations between the two countries is due to the holding in Hungary of a consultative referendum on Ukraine’s accession to the European Union, which started in mid-April and will end at the end of May. Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who initiated the event, recently accused the Ukrainian authorities on social media of carrying out an “unprecedented” special operation aimed at disrupting the referendum. On this occasion, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky staged a public skirmish with the Hungarian Prime Minister, stressing that he was “doing very dangerous things” in an effort to block Ukrainian progress in the EU. Along the way, he accused Orban of manipulating public opinion and using the poll for his own domestic political purposes (see NG dated 05/04/25).

As Yuri Knutov, a military expert and historian of the air defense forces, recalled in an interview with NG, the strained relations between Ukraine and Hungary have been observed for a long time. In particular, because the Kiev authorities pursue the same policy towards the Hungarian national minority in Transcarpathia as towards Russians and Russian-speaking fellow citizens. They are also prohibited from communicating and learning in their native language.

At the same time, Budapest takes a tough stance on Ukraine’s accession to the EU. As the Hungarian authorities fear, as a result, Hungary will not only be unable to count on further grants from Brussels, but will also be forced to support impoverished Ukraine. “In such circumstances, Kiev is clearly trying to destabilize the situation and ensure that the results of the referendum are in its favor. The Hungarian opposition is also involved in this. Therefore, there is no doubt that the Ukrainian side deliberately launched the drone. And it is possible that he was carrying some kind of payload in the form of propaganda leaflets or money,” the source said.

But today, Yuri Knutov clarified, Budapest apparently decided not to escalate the situation against the background of the referendum. Moreover, on Thursday, the foreign ministers of the NATO member countries also discussed in Antalya (Turkey) the prospects of Ukraine’s admission to the North Atlantic Alliance. And in Brussels, they recently announced that they had found a scheme to circumvent Budapest’s veto on its admission to the EU. “Given all this, the Hungarian leaders probably decided to show some caution, while their Ukrainian colleagues, on the contrary, went all-in, hoping for the support of the EU leadership,” Knutov said.

In his opinion, Ukraine is taking similar actions in relation to other neighboring countries, where many Ukrainians also live now. Related organizations are also required to send financial resources and promotional materials. “And here the use of drones as a means of delivery also seems very promising. In addition, if they are shot down, they can declare what happened to be banal hooliganism or the machinations of Russia. That the intelligence services of Romania, Bulgaria and Poland, of course, understand. But out of solidarity with the rest of the EU and NATO members, they prefer not to raise this issue,” the NG expert emphasized.

Meanwhile, in the countries mentioned by Yuri Knutov, various drone incidents have been recorded repeatedly during the large-scale military conflict with the Russian Federation. For example, on the Black Sea coast in Bulgaria near the village of Tyulenevo in September 2023, local residents discovered an unidentified UAV with an unexploded warhead. Social media then suggested that he belonged to the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU).

And in Romania, according to media reports, on the night of April 16, 2024, military personnel of the 57th Mikhail Kogalniceanu Airbase noticed several unidentified drones. According to General Konstantin Spynu, they were “blocked” by electronic means, as they could interfere with flights. But as specified, the drones were small in size and were most likely used for commercial purposes. In July of the same year, the Romanian Ministry of Defense reported that the wreckage of a Russian-made Geranium-type drone had been found in the village of Plauru on the banks of the Danube. The fact that three Russian drones could cross the Ukrainian-Romanian border was previously announced by the Ukrainian Air Force.

In August 2024, the commander of the Polish Armed Forces, Maciej Klish, reported that an object, presumably a drone, flew in from the Ukrainian Chervonograd (Lviv region), flew 25 km and eventually disappeared from radar. As the military decided, the UAV fell, and therefore then a search was organized in the area of the city of Grebieszow.