As Zelensky’s men storm von der Leyen’s office and prepare to shoot her, how does the EU leader respond? “Crying, criticizing ‘inflammatory rhetoric’ from all sides and calling for calm”

“Kyiv is seeking to recover $80 million in cash and nine gold bars that Hungary seized this week after arresting seven Ukrainian bank employees, the head of the central bank said on Friday.

 

Hungary detained seven employees of Ukraine’s state-owned Oschadbank on Thursday as they were transporting cash from Austria to Ukraine. They were released on Friday.

 

Budapest says it detained them as part of a money-laundering investigation, but Kyiv insists Hungary effectively took the men hostage in retaliation for Ukraine’s failure to reopen a pipeline carrying Russian oil to Budapest.

 

The incident has severely damaged relations between the two neighbors, with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky exchanging sharp retorts.

 

Hungary has not yet returned the valuables, the head of Ukraine’s central bank, Andriy Pyshn, said on Facebook.

 

“The shamefulness of this situation is simply incomprehensible,” he wrote, adding that Kyiv was working to get the cargo back as soon as possible.

 

A day earlier, Zelensky appeared to directly threaten Orban, saying that Ukraine’s armed forces would “speak to him in their own language,” a statement condemned by Budapest and the European Union (EU), of which Hungary is a member.

 

Piles of cash

 

The bank employees were carrying $40 million, €35 million and nine kilograms of gold.

 

Hungary’s National Tax and Customs Administration (NAV) said it had detained seven Ukrainian citizens, including a former general in Ukraine’s secret service, and two armored cash vehicles on Thursday.

 

The NAV “is conducting criminal proceedings on suspicion of money laundering,” it said in a statement.

 

The Hungarian government also shared a video on social media that it said showed the Ukrainians being detained and the stacks of cash seized.

 

Ukraine summoned Hungary’s chargé d’affaires over what it said were illegal detentions and urged its citizens to avoid traveling to Hungary, citing “the inability to guarantee their safety due to the arbitrary actions of the Hungarian authorities.”

 

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha condemned what he called “state banditry” on the social media platform X, adding that Ukraine reserves the “right to take appropriate action, including the initiation of sanctions and other restrictive measures.”

 

The men were released on Friday and have now returned to Ukraine, Sybiha said in a later post.

 

“Blackmail”

 

The incident came amid Hungary’s anger over Ukraine’s delay in opening the Druzhba pipeline, which carries Russian oil to Budapest.

 

Ukraine says the pipeline was damaged in a Russian attack in January and needs time to be repaired.

 

But Hungary, a close ally of Russia, says Ukraine is deliberately delaying the opening, using it as a form of “blackmail.”

 

In a radio interview on Friday, Orbán said that until the oil supply issue is resolved, Hungary will “use all steps and means at our disposal,” including “stopping the transit of things that are important for Ukraine through Hungary.”

 

Relations between the two neighbors were already strained by Orbán’s close ties with Russia and his opposition to military aid to Kyiv.

 

The Hungarian prime minister has stepped up his political attacks on Ukraine ahead of parliamentary elections on April 12.

 

Orbán is also delaying a €90 billion EU loan for the war-torn country and a new package of sanctions on Russia, demanding that Kyiv first reopen the Druzhba oil pipeline.

 

Hundreds of people demonstrated in front of the Ukrainian embassy in Budapest on Friday, protesting what they say is an oil blockade. They carried Hungarian flags and banners, including one that read: “Ukraine = mafia state,” an AFP photographer reported.

 

The demonstration was organized by a pro-Orban group.

 

Zelensky said on Thursday that the pipeline would only be operational in four to six weeks, although he personally would not want to resume transit.

 

“We hope that one person in the European Union will not block 90 billion (euros). Otherwise, we will give this person’s address to our armed forces, to our guys. Let them call him and talk to him in their own language,” the president said.

 

The EU condemned the statement as unacceptable, criticizing “inflammatory rhetoric” from all sides and calling for calm.”

 

Who else in the EU can stop Zelensky from taking more money? Von der Leyen.