Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
| Photo Credit: Reuters
Ukraine accused Hungary on Friday (March 6, 2026) of “taking hostage” seven employees of its state savings bank who were carrying around $82 million in cash and gold, as Budapest vowed to stop transit shipments to the war-torn country amid an oil dispute.
Kyiv and Budapest are locked in an increasingly bitter row over an outage of the Druzhba pipeline which supplies Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia. They are the only EU countries still importing Russian oil due to EU sanctions.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said the employees of Oschadbank had been transporting cash from Austria back to Ukraine via Hungary when they were detained. He said their whereabouts were currently unknown.
“In fact, we are talking about Hungary taking hostages and stealing money,” Mr. Sybiha wrote on X. “This is state terrorism and racketeering.”
He said Ukraine had sent an official note demanding the immediate release of its citizens and would ask the European Union to “provide a clear qualification of Hungary’s unlawful actions”.
The Hungarian Foreign Ministry, police and a government spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comments.
Separately, the Telex news site reported on Friday (March 6) that Hungary’s anti-terrorism forces had raided two cash-in-transit vehicles with Ukrainian licence plates on a highway. There was no immediate official confirmation of the report.
Orban vows more pressure on Kyiv
Hungary and Slovakia accuse Ukraine of deliberately delaying the resumption of oil flows via the damaged Druzhba pipeline for political reasons. Kyiv denies the charge, saying it needs time to repair the damage caused to energy infrastructure by a Russian drone strike on January 27.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who faces a serious challenge to his 16-year rule in an election on April 12, has vetoed new European Union sanctions on Moscow as well as a huge EU loan for Ukraine over the oil dispute.
Mr. Orban again accused Kyiv on Friday (March 6) of blackmail and said Hungary would use all means at its disposal until oil flows resume.
“We have stopped… diesel exports to Ukraine, we still maintain power exports, and we will stop transit shipments going through Hungary that are important for Ukraine… until we get Ukraine’s approval for the oil shipments,” Mr. Orban told state radio. He did not refer to the detention of the bank employees.
GPS signal
The Ukrainian savings bank said its employees had been carrying $40 million, 35 million euros and 9 kg of gold. It said a GPS signal showed their vehicles were now near a building of Hungary’s security services in Budapest.
“The transportation of funds and valuables was carried out by Oschadbank within the framework of and in accordance with an international agreement with Raiffeisen Bank, Austria,” Oschadbank said in a statement.
“The cargo was cleared in accordance with international transportation rules and applicable European customs procedures.”
Raiffeisen International, when contacted by Reuters, declined to comment on the matter, citing banking secrecy rules.
Published – March 06, 2026 04:02 pm IST
