Ukraine said it had expelled two Hungarian diplomats on Monday, hours after its main intelligence agency reported it had arrested two men suspected of spying for Hungary by gathering intelligence on the Ukrainian military in the west of the country.
The espionage allegations were met with anger in Budapest, and the Hungarian Foreign Ministry expelled two Ukrainian diplomats for allegedly spying for Ukraine.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó did not directly deny Kiev's claims, but assessed that this could be classified as "anti-Hungarian propaganda" due to Budapest's refusal to assist Ukraine in its fight against Russia.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said that both suspects had previously served in the Ukrainian military and were arrested as members of a spy network. They face charges of treason, which could carry a life sentence.
Then, Foreign Minister Andriy Sibiha said that two Hungarian diplomats had been expelled. As the statement states, for the first time in the history of Ukraine, a Hungarian espionage operation had been uncovered.
The spies' activities were allegedly concentrated in the western Ukrainian region of Zakarpattia, on the border with Hungary, which is home to a significant number of members of the Hungarian minority.
Budapest and Kiev are arguing over the rights of this minority, and before the end of World War I, Transcarpathia was largely part of Hungary.
Sibiha claims that the spy network was tasked with gathering information on military security in the region, investigating weak points in land and air defense, and "studying the sociopolitical views of the local population, especially scenarios of their behavior if Hungarian troops entered the region."
The SBU said that the work of both spies was supervised by a career officer of the Hungarian military counterintelligence service, whose identity has also been established, who supplied the spy network with cash and special devices for secret communication. He also allegedly tried to recruit others into the spy network.
There has been no comment from the Hungarian Ministry of Defense or the Hungarian Military Counterintelligence Service so far.
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