Ukraine names Hungarian officer allegedly behind spy network busted in 2025

Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) on March 23 revealed the name of a Hungarian intelligence officer who allegedly oversaw an espionage operation in Zakarpattia Oblast dismantled last year.

Zoltan Andre, a staff member of Hungary's military intelligence, ran the network tasked with collecting information on Ukraine's defenses and the political climate in the westernmost region of Ukraine, according to the SBU.

Kyiv first announced busting the network in May 2025, detaining two Ukrainians suspected of conducting espionage on behalf of Budapest — the first such incident between the two countries.

The spy network's objectives reportedly included gathering intelligence on air defense systems and assessing local residents' potential reaction to a Hungarian military deployment in the region.

The revelations sparked a row between Ukraine and Hungary at the time, leading to a tit-for-tat expulsion of diplomats.

The SBU said already in 2025 that it had identified the Hungarian officer overseeing the operation, but did not disclose his identity until now — just as Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban is escalating his rhetoric toward Kyiv amid a heated election campaign at home.

According to the SBU, Andre previously carried out intelligence activities under diplomatic cover in Georgia between 2016 and 2020.

In 2021, he began intelligence operations targeting Ukraine, seeking to recruit spies, mainly among former or active-duty military or law enforcement personnel.

The SBU also said Andre approached local residents seeking Hungarian citizenship, offering money and other benefits in exchange for their cooperation.

The Kyiv Independent could not immediately verify the claims.

"At present, SBU counterintelligence continues comprehensive measures to identify all members of the Hungarian agent network operating against Ukraine," the Ukrainian agency said in a statement on Telegram.

Zakarpattia Oblast is a region with a sizable ethnic Hungarian minority and a sensitive location along NATO's eastern frontier. Kyiv has long accused Budapest of undermining Ukraine's sovereignty through political interference and dual citizenship schemes.

More recently, the SBU also warned of a Russian disinformation campaign aimed at stoking tensions among local Hungarians in the region and between Kyiv and Budapest.

In recent months, Ukrainian-Hungarian relations have sharply deteriorated over the suspension of Russian oil transit to Hungary and Slovakia via the Druzhba pipeline.

Ukraine said that a pumping station ensuring transit was damaged in a Russian strike in Lviv Oblast in late January, while Bratislava and Budapest accused Kyiv of intentionally withholding transit.

Hungary, seen as the most Kremlin-friendly government in the European Union, is also currently facing scrutiny from partners over reportedly passing information from confidential EU meetings to the Kremlin.

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