Hungary bans entry to Ukrainian military officer, intelligence officer, and political expert - media

The Hungarian government has decided to ban three Ukrainian citizens from entering Hungary and the Schengen area: Ukrainian serviceman, activist and leader of the public organization C14 Yevhen Karas, former head of the department for combating corruption and organized crime of the Main Directorate of Military Counterintelligence of the Security Service of Ukraine (1992-94), MP of the Verkhovna Rada of the II-VI convocations (1994-2012) Hryhoriy Omelchenko and Ukrainian political consultant and analyst Borys Tiesenhausen.

According to local publication 24hu, Gergely Gulyas, Chief of Staff to the Hungarian Prime Minister, announced this at a government briefing. He claimed that Karas, Omelchenko, and Tiesenhausen allegedly threatened Hungary that "Ukraine could launch a military attack" on the country or made personal threats against Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán or his family.

At the same time, the publication notes that Hungarian government media disseminated Omelchenko's statement out of context to create the impression that he had threatened Orban's family, although in fact he had not.

According to Gulyas, Tisenhausen allegedly discussed sending Ukrainian troops to Hungary, and the basis for Karas' entry ban was that he heads an organization that Orban's chief of staff called a "neo-Nazi group," as well as that he allegedly threatens Orban and the country.

As reported, a day earlier, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, arriving at the European Union summit, stated that Budapest would not support any decision regarding Ukraine until it received Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline, which was damaged by Russian shelling in January.

Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo believes that his leader, Orban, is using Ukraine as a weapon in his election campaign.

On the same day, the Security Service of Ukraine reported the exposure of a psychological warfare operation by Russian intelligence agencies against ethnic Hungarians in Zakarpattia region. They made fake threatening phone calls to Hungarians, posing as Ukrainian law enforcement officers and alleged members of "national-patriotic groups," demanding they leave Ukraine and threatening them with physical violence. The SBU called on citizens not to fall for such provocations. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha noted that the exposed operation points to Russia's interference in the Hungarian elections on Orbán's side.