Orbán suggests Ukraine plotted to sabotage TurkStream pipeline — Serbia sees it differently

Just days before Hungary’s elections, the Ukrainians apparently decided to detonate explosives along the Serbian stretch of the TurkStream pipeline supplying gas to our country—or so PM Viktor Orbán’s government insists. The Tisza Party, frontrunner in the polls, dismisses it as the very “false flag” operation they have been warning about for weeks, allegedly with Russian assistance. Yesterday’s statement from the director of Serbia’s Military Security Agency offers little support for Budapest’s narrative. Is President Vučić about to betray his Hungarian ally?

Terror threat to the pipeline?

Relations between Serbia’s controversial president, Aleksandar Vučić, and Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, have been exceptionally cordial for years. This neighbourly warmth extends to Orbán’s readiness to assist even Milorad Dodik, the former Bosnian Serb leader notorious for seeking to detach his entity from Bosnia-Hercegovina in defiance of the Dayton accords brokered by the United States.

Ahead of Sunday’s elections, campaign support may have been forthcoming from Serbia: yesterday, Orbán announced that unknowns had plotted an attack on the TurkStream’s Serbian section, thereby endangering Hungary’s gas supply. Yet accounts of the two sports bags found beside the pipeline—and the explosives within—diverge sharply between the Serbian and Hungarian governments.

Hungarian government: it ‘fits’ prior Ukrainian attacks

Budapest swiftly pointed the finger at Ukraine. In a video this morning, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó described it as a foiled terror attack that would have crippled Hungary’s natural gas supply. He noted that the Ukrainians had already blown up the Nord Stream pipeline from Russia to Germany, while restarts of the Druzhba oil pipeline were being delayed not for technical reasons, but political ones. This latest plot against the Serbian section, he implied, slots neatly into that pattern—suggesting Kyiv’s hand behind the black sports bags’ contents.

Prime Minister Orbán travelled to Kiskundorozsma with Szijjártó this morning, site of the pipeline’s entry point into Hungary. He declared the Hungarian armed forces capable of protecting it, though heightened vigilance was essential. On the perpetrators, Orbán was more circumspect today—naming only Ukraine, and linking it to their prior attacks as evidence of capability.

The Serbs make no mention of Ukraine

In stark contrast to Budapest’s insinuations, the Serbian position is unambiguous. Đuro Jovanić, director of the Military Security Agency (VBA), said prior warnings of threats to Serbia’s gas infrastructure had gone unheeded by political leaders.

He firmly denied any link to a foreign state’s election campaign. The fact that the explosives were US-made proves nothing, he insisted. He dismissed as “pure disinformation” claims that the Serbian army would act for a second or third party “by planting Ukrainian explosives to blame Ukraine”, reports 444.hu.

Small search area suggests prior knowledge

Telex reported this morning, citing locals, that authorities combed a relatively confined area in hunting the explosives—as if they knew precisely where to look. There was no heightened police presence or helicopter noise. A man from Oromhegyes told Szegeder: “Everything proceeded in its usual course.”

Investigative journalist Szabolcs Panyi wrote yesterday of hearing whispers weeks ago from sources close to the Hungarian government about a false flag operation. It was to unfold in Serbia, he said, since the Hungarian military has guarded domestic energy infrastructure for weeks—making a successful domestic attack a poor reflection on defence capabilities. The leaks, Panyi claims, are now a torrent.

A Serbian gesture to Budapest and Moscow?

444.hu, citing foreign policy expert András Rácz, notes that placing the explosives along the Serbian pipeline stretch could pass as a gesture from Belgrade to Budapest and Moscow. But preserving good EU ties precluded more. Serbia even circumscribed the narrative by branding as disinformation any suggestion that its army had planted Ukrainian explosives to frame Kyiv.

The Ukrainian government yesterday “categorically” rejected any connection between the Serbian explosives and Kyiv, according to Türkiye’s Anadolu Agency.

If you missed our previous articles concerning Serbia:

• Hungary places TurkStream pipeline under military protection after Serbia explosives scare
• Orbán faces accusations of staged “false-flag” gas attack, Magyar asks to be included in Defence Council session