Mate Kocsis told a press conference that Tseber as an "illegal" officer had probably been actively building relations with members of the Hungarian opposition for a long time. Kocsis added that Tseber had met several leading politicians and senior officials of parliamentary parties as part of his activities in Hungary.

In the meantime, Hollo's activities in Hungary involved active intelligence activities to learn about Hungary's army and energy systems in cooperation with Ukrainian military intelligence, Kocsis said.

He added that Tseber was earlier a dual Ukrainian-Hungarian citizen but he returned his Hungarian citizenship in 2017. He has built a political career in Ukraine, including as a representative of the Transcarpathian County Council, Kocsis said.

Tseber had been on the radar of the Hungarian national security authorities for years, and he was banned from entering and staying in Hungary due to his intensifying activities in 2024, he added.

Hollo, who had also been on the radar of Hungarian counterintelligence for a long time, is a Ukrainian citizen who had never held Hungarian citizenship, Kocsis said.

He has been involved in activities to influence Hungary's international reputation in a negative way and aimed to make the Hungarian government change its position concerning Ukraine with the help of external pressure, he added.

In response to a question about the transparency law, Kocsis said the aim was to prevent, for instance, the disinformation campaigns that are currently under way from Ukraine, and to protect the Hungarian public space from foreign secret services and foreign state interests.

Budapest prosecutor's office initiates arrest of Ukrainian man suspected of espionage

The Budapest prosecutor's office has initiated the arrest of a Ukrainian man suspected of, among other things, espionage, the authority said on Tuesday.

The office said in a statement without mentioning the man's name that there is well-founded suspicion that the man had been commissioned by the Ukrainian military intelligence service to collect data and information.

On the basis of this activity, the investigating authority had suspected the man of espionage and other crimes, the statement added.

The arrest of the man has been initiated to prevent him from fleeing abroad and influencing the collection of evidence, it said.

A decision by the judge is expected to be made on Wednesday, it added.

Spies from Ukraine Expelled from Hungary

The Hungarian government has expelled two spies who worked at Ukraine's embassy in Budapest "under diplomatic coverage", the foreign minister said.

"The government will no longer tolerate Kyiv's continued defamation activities against Hungary," Peter Szijjarto said.

The foreign ministry quoted Szijjarto as saying that anti-Hungarian propaganda in Ukraine was on the increase because "we Hungarians want peace and say no to war; we have not sent and will not send weapons to Ukraine and ... will not allow Hungary to be dragged into the war."

The minister said a protocol concerning the removal of the two agents had been handed over to Ukraine's ambassador to Hungary.

Counter-terrorism unit arrests Ukrainian spy in Budapest

Counter-terrorism force TEK has said it arrested a Ukrainian national in downtown Budapest on Friday afternoon against whom the National Directorate-General for Alien Policing has issued an entry and stay ban over espionage activities, according to a statement on the government’s Facebook page.

The man in question was questioned before being deported from the country during the night in light of the risks his actions posed to Hungary’s sovereignty, the statement on Saturday said.

The man had been working under diplomatic cover, but his official status has expired, they added.

Meanwhile, Kocsis: Tisza, Ukraine secret service in cahoots

"Today it transpired that the Ukrainian secret services are in cahoots with (Hungary's opposition) Tisza Party, Mate Kocsis, the group leader of ruling Fidesz, said on Facebook on Friday.

Kocsis quoted Tisza advisor Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi, earlier Hungary's chief of staff, as closing an address to a NATO meeting with the slogan "Slava Ukraini!", which he said was in contradiction with the official Hungarian position.

He also quoted Ruszin-Szendi as "boasting important Ukrainian contacts" earlier and having met the former Ukrainian chief of staff on many occasions.

"Today the Ukrainian secret services launched a broad defamation campaign against Hungary. Peter Magyar (the leader of Tisza) has sided with Ukraine rather than with Hungary," Kocsis said.

Mi Hazank urges to convene national security committee

"You cannot believe the Ukrainian regime or its secret service," the leader of opposition Mi Hazank party said on Friday, commenting on Ukraine's arrest of Hungarian nationals alleged to be spies, and called for urgently convening parliament's national security committee.

Laszlo Toroczkai said on social media X that the Ukrainian government was making "the same accusations of treason and separatism" against the detained Hungarians as it had levelled against Laszlo Brenzovics, an ethnic Hungarian leader in Ukraine, in 2020.

Toroczkai pointed to Ukraine's stripping ethnic Hungarians of their rights, and said "the regime and its secret service is making more and more serious provocations against Hungarians and Hungary." He added that Ukrainian drones had recently entered the Hungarian airspace, one downed by the Hungarian military.

"It has been a serious mistake by the Hungarian government to keep quiet about the increasingly serious anti-Hungarian incidents," Toroczkai said.

According to Toroczkai, Ukraine seeks to discredit Hungary, which is against Ukraine's European Union entry. "We cannot exclude an effort to interfere with Hungary's domestic affairs from among their goals," he added.

Toroczkai demanded autonomy for Ukraine's Transcarpathia region and self determination and fundamental rights to its ethnic Hungarian community, to be reached in a peaceful way, based on international law and Ukraine's 1991 referendum.

Source: 
MTI - The Hungarian News Agency, founded in 1881.

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