Hungary planned raid on Ukrainian cash-in-transit vehicles to provoke confrontation
An operation to seize Ukrainian cash-in-transit guards and assets belonging to Oschadbank on 5 March was planned by Hungarian intelligence services to provoke a confrontation with Ukraine ahead of Hungary's parliamentary elections.
Source: investigative journalists from VSquare, as reported by European Pravda
Details: According to four sources familiar with the details of the operation to detain the Ukrainian cash-in-transit guards and seize Oschadbank's assets, the raid was led by Örs Farkas, the state secretary responsible for civilian intelligence services.
It is claimed that Hungarian intelligence services had been monitoring regular shipments of bank cargo from Austria to Ukraine since at least early January 2026. Surveillance was conducted abroad: operatives identified the hotel in Vienna where the Ukrainian guards were staying and mapped out the routes they used.
Hungary's initial plan was to catch the Ukrainians with weapons, which would have allowed the authorities to promote a narrative about terrorism or illegal arms trafficking.
For this reason, the Counterterrorism Centre (TEK) was tasked with carrying out the raid, which was personally overseen by State Secretary Farkas from the TEK command centre.
However, the raid did not go as planned, as the documents, cash transfers and the cash-in-transit operation turned out to be entirely legal, and the Ukrainians were not carrying any weapons.
As a result, Hungarian authorities hastily devised a "Plan B", accusing the cash-in-transit guards of money laundering. Hungary's tax authority (the NAV) was instructed to launch an investigation to create the appearance of legality.
The fact that the operation was improvised is also evidenced by the absence of any notification to the Hungarian military intelligence regarding the raid, despite the narrative about a "war mafia".
Moreover, Hungary's Ministry of Defence was informed only after TEK operatives realised they lacked sufficient vehicles to transport the seized cash-in-transit vehicles and had to request military transport.
According to the sources, the operation is being considered a success in Hungary because news of it reached Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy ahead of a press conference. They suggest this may relate to the moment when Zelenskyy threatened to give the address of "a certain person" blocking the EU's €90 billion loan for Ukraine (alluding to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán) to "the guys from the Armed Forces of Ukraine". However, journalists cannot confirm that these remarks were directly linked to the raid involving Oschadbank.
Background: On 9 March, Hungarian authorities urgently adopted legislation to create a legal framework for the confiscation of funds that ended up in the hands of the Hungarian intelligence services after the seizure of two Oschadbank cash-in-transit vehicles. This also required a separate specially adopted decision by Viktor Orbán's government.
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