Over Easter, Serbian authorities found two backpacks containing explosives and detonators near a major gas pipeline that carries Russian gas through the Balkans to Hungary. Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić said security units had discovered an explosive device of “devastating power.” The device was reported a few hundred metres from the TurkStream pipeline, which supplies a large share of Hungary’s gas needs.
Within hours, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó suggested Ukraine might be responsible. Szijjártó said the incident fit a pattern of attacks on Hungary’s energy supplies and implied Ukrainian involvement. DW Fact Check considers that framing misleading.
Serbian investigators, however, have denied any link to Ukraine. Duro Jovanić, director of Serbia’s Military Security Agency, stated that it was not true Ukrainians organized the sabotage. Serbian authorities opened an investigation but have not published public, verifiable evidence identifying the perpetrators. Officials did note the explosive components were originally manufactured in the United States, but manufacture origin alone does not establish who placed the devices.
Ukraine also rejected accusations. Heorhii Tykhyi, a Ukrainian foreign ministry spokesperson, wrote on X that Kyiv had nothing to do with the episode and called it “most probably” a Russian false-flag designed to interfere with Hungary’s election. Donatienne Ruy, a Europe and Russia expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the incident looked like a sign of “desperation.”
The timing drew attention: the explosives were found six days before Hungary’s 12 April election. Opinion polls at the time showed Orbán’s Fidesz trailing opposition forces. After the discovery, Orbán travelled to the Hungarian border with soldiers and publicly linked the incident to broader claims that Ukraine was targeting Hungary’s energy supply, warning that Ukraine’s ambitions posed a “mortal threat” to Hungary.
Claims that the operation might have been staged gained traction because analysts and security services had warned a false-flag attack on energy infrastructure could be used to pin blame on Ukraine ahead of the vote. Security analyst András Rácz had posted a fictional scenario on social media a few days earlier describing a Russian false-flag involving Ukrainian explosives and explicitly mentioning TurkStream — a scenario that closely mirrored the later discovery.
The episode sits inside a wider, tense Hungary–Ukraine energy relationship. Hungary relies heavily on Russian oil and gas relative to other EU states and has repeatedly said Ukraine disrupted flows on pipelines such as Druzhba. Budapest has pointed to strikes on compressor stations feeding TurkStream as evidence of threats to its energy, though some such claims were not independently verified by outlets like the Kyiv Independent. Maintaining access to affordable Russian oil and gas has been central to Orbán’s political messaging, and he has frequently blamed Ukraine for risks to Hungary’s energy security while resisting tougher EU measures on Russia.
Bottom line: Hungarian officials suggested Ukraine was responsible, but Serbian investigators and Ukrainian authorities deny involvement. No public, verifiable evidence has been released identifying the perpetrators. DW Fact Check rates the implication that Ukraine organized the pipeline sabotage as misleading.