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Hungarian Prime Minister\u00a0Viktor Orban called an emergency defence council meeting on Sunday after powerful explosives were found near a pipeline in Serbia that carries Russian gas to the country.<\/p>\n
The incident prompted political scrutiny in Hungary at a sensitive time days before a national election, with Orban\u2019s party trailing in opinion polls.<\/p>\n
Orban said Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, a close ally, had informed him by phone about the discovery outside the town of Kanjiza, near Hungary\u2019s border with Serbia.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur units found an explosive of devastating power,\u201d Vucic said in a post on Instagram. \u201cI told PM Orban that we would keep him updated on the investigation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Officials in Budapest and Belgrade did not respond to requests for comment about the incident, which comes before pivotal elections on April 12 in Hungary where nationalist Orban is fighting to hold onto his more than 16-year grip on power.<\/p>\n
A former Hungarian intelligence official told Reuters there had been discussions in Hungarian security circles over the past days about a precise plan for a \u201cfalse-flag\u201d operation impacting the pipeline in Serbia as part of an effort to influence the Hungarian vote.<\/p>\n
Peter Magyar, leader of the opposition Tisza party also raised doubts about the incident, saying it appeared aimed at boosting Orban\u2019s electoral prospects.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeveral people have publicly indicated that something will \u2018accidentally\u2019 happen at the gas pipeline in Serbia at Easter, a week before the Hungarian elections. And so it happened,\u201d Magyar said in a statement.<\/p>\n
PIVOTAL ELECTIONS<\/p>\n
In a Facebook post after the defence council meeting, Orban suggested the incident related to an attempt to blow up the pipeline, which transports Russian gas through the Balkans to Central and Eastern Europe.<\/p>\n
\u201cAccording to information that we have\u2026.there was an act of sabotage prepared,\u201d Orban said after the meeting, adding that both countries have strengthened the protection of the pipeline.<\/p>\n
Without directly blaming Ukraine for the incident in Serbia, Orban said \u201cUkraine has been for years trying to cut off Europe from Russian energy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Russian section of TurkStream is also under continuous military attack. Ukraine\u2019s efforts pose a life-threatening danger to Hungary,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
The head of Serbia\u2019s Military Intelligence Agency, Djuro Jusic, said the explosives\u00a0found on a section of pipeline linked to the Turkstream system, which carries Russian gas to Turkey and then to Central Europe, were\u00a0produced in the United States.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had information that a person from a migrant community, with military training,\u00a0will carry out a diversion on the gas infrastructure,\u201d he told reporters in Belgrade. He did not give further details, but said authorities in Serbia were searching for that person.<\/p>\n
Orban in February scaled up security around energy infrastructure in the country by dispatching troops after what he said were plans by Ukraine to disrupt the Hungarian energy system \u2013 charges Kyiv denied.<\/p>\n
Ukraine\u2019s foreign ministry strongly rejected what it said were attempts to link Kyiv to the explosives.<\/p>\n
\u201cUkraine has nothing to do with this,\u201d foreign ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi said on X. \u201cMost probably, a Russian false-flag operation as part of Moscow\u2019s heavy interference in Hungarian elections.\u201d<\/p>\n
Budapest has also been in a dispute with Ukraine over a halt in oil supplies via the Druzhba pipeline. Orban\u2019s Fidesz party has sought to associate opposition leader Peter Magyar with Brussels and Ukraine, suggesting that voting for his Tisza party means voting for tanks and war.<\/p>\n
Hungary is an outlier in the European Union for maintaining ties with Moscow, which voiced support for Hungary over Sunday\u2019s incident and suggested that Ukraine was responsible.<\/p>\n
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto also blamed Ukraine, writing on Facebook that \u201cin the past few days and weeks, the Ukrainians organised an oil blockade against us, and then tried to put us under a total energy blockade \u2026 And now we have today\u2019s incident.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Reporting by Krisztina Than; Additional reporting by Lili Bayer in Brussels and Ivana Sekularac in Belgrade Writing by Edward McAllister; Editing by Hugh Lawson, Helen Popper, William Maclean, Christina Fincher)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n