Budapest, Hungary – Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán convened an emergency session of the National Defence Council on Sunday after explosives were discovered near the TurkStream pipeline, which transports Russian gas to Hungary through Serbia. The discovery comes just days ahead of crucial national elections, in which Orbán’s party, Fidesz, is trailing in opinion polls.
“Our units found an explosive of devastating power,” Serbian President Alexander Vučić announced on Instagram, adding that the Hungarian leader would be updated on the investigation.
Two rucksacks containing explosives and detonators were located near Tresnjevac, approximately 20km from the point where the pipeline crosses into Hungary. Hungary relies on the TurkStream pipeline for between five and eight billion cubic metres of Russian gas annually, a supply critical for domestic energy needs.
Orbán, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has resisted EU pressure to reduce Russian energy imports since the invasion of Ukraine. He immediately linked the discovery to external threats against Hungary, warning that the pipeline incident could impact energy supplies ahead of the election.
“In the past few days and weeks, we’ve seen it all… and now we have today’s incident, in which Serbian colleagues found explosives capable of blowing up the pipeline,” Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó wrote on Facebook.
However, opposition leader Péter Magyar accused Orbán of exploiting the discovery for political gain, alleging that the Prime Minister was engaging in “panic-mongering” orchestrated by Russian advisers. Security analysts have warned that the incident could be a staged “false flag” operation intended to bolster Orbán’s electoral standing or provide justification to postpone the vote.
“He will not be able to prevent next Sunday’s election. He will not be able to prevent millions of Hungarians from ending the most corrupt two decades in our country’s history,” Magyar said, pointing to allegations of manipulation.
Hungarian security experts, including András Rácz, had predicted such a scenario on social media, suggesting a fake attack could be staged in Serbia, with explosives falsely attributed to Ukraine to sway public opinion. Former counter-intelligence officer Peter Buda also said:
“It’s clear that Ukraine’s interests aren’t at stake here. An operation like this would help Orbán before the election by influencing public opinion in his favour.”
Orbán has repeatedly framed Hungary’s energy security as dependent on Russian oil and gas, accusing a “Kyiv-Brussels-Berlin” axis of seeking to block supplies and portray opposition leader Magyar as a puppet of the EU.
“If the investigation proves that we were not the primary target after all, but rather Hungary’s supply lines, then this makes it even clearer: the terrorist attack was planned with the aim of bringing down Viktor Orbán,” wrote Bálint Pásztor, a prominent Hungarian community leader in Vojvodina, on Facebook.
Meanwhile, Ukraine pre-emptively denied involvement. Foreign ministry spokesman Heorhiy Tykhyy posted on X:
“Ukraine has nothing to do with this. Most probably, a Russian false-flag operation as part of Moscow’s heavy interference in Hungarian elections.”
As Hungarian voters prepare to head to the polls next Sunday, the pipeline incident has heightened tensions, raising questions over whether national security concerns or political strategy will shape the outcome of one of the country’s most consequential elections in years.
