Investigation: Orbán ordered raid on Ukraine's Oschadbank convoy carrying cash and gold
Hungarian investigative outlet Telex has reported that the order to seize Ukrainian cash-in-transit guards and Oschadbank assets near Budapest on 5 March came from then Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán.
As reported by Telex, journalists found that the operation against Ukraine's state-owned Oschadbank had no legal basis and was instead a political miscalculation that had been planned in advance.
"Government officials, namely Viktor Orbán, decided that a raid on the Ukrainian 'gold convoy' should take place on 5 March, even though there were no professional grounds for such an operation. This became clear from the behind-the-scenes conversations Telex held over recent weeks with sources familiar with or involved in the case," the investigation reveals.
Several sources told the journalists that instructions regarding the timing of the raid had come from the Hungarian government in early March. This information was also confirmed by Hungary's Constitution Protection Office.
"At the beginning of March, a decision was received from the State Secretariat for the Supervision of Civil National Security Services within the Prime Minister's Office stating that the raid on the money transport vehicles was to take place on 5 March," Hungary's Constitution Protection Office told Telex.
It is also reported that the State Secretariat was acting on instructions from Orbán, who was continuously updated on developments on the day of the operation.
Several independent sources confirmed to the investigators that the operation against the "gold convoy" had been ordered by the then prime minister and that he personally insisted on it being carried out.
According to Telex sources, Orbán decided to take this step in response to Ukraine's "blocking" of the Druzhba oil pipeline after it had been damaged by Russian strikes.
The government also intended to use the story to shift public attention towards allegations that the money transported by the Ukrainians was of questionable origin and was being used to finance opposition forces. Media outlets linked to the Fidesz party reinforced the narrative with AI-generated images portraying the Ukrainian cash-in-transit guards as detained criminals.
Orbán believed that Ukraine was preventing the transit of Russian oil to Hungary for political reasons rather than because it was unable to repair the damaged pipeline. As a result, he wanted to respond forcefully to Kyiv. On 5 March, during the opening of the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Orbán declared that his government would force Ukraine and the EU to resume oil transportation through the Druzhba pipeline.
"We will win, and we will win through strength. There will be no compromises. We will break the oil blockade. We will force the Ukrainians to resume oil supplies. Open the Druzhba pipeline unconditionally and without delay," he said, at a time when the operation against Oschadbank was already approaching implementation.
On 5 March, a convoy of Ukrainian cash-in-transit guards carrying approximately US$80 million in cash and gold from Austria's Raiffeisen Bank to Ukraine's Oschadbank was seized near Budapest.
It later emerged that throughout their detention in Hungary in early March, the Oschadbank personnel were kept in handcuffs, and one of them received two injections between interrogations.
Hungary later released the Ukrainian personnel and adopted legislation allowing the seizure of money and valuables transported in Oschadbank cash-in-transit vehicles.
On 6 May, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that the Hungarian authorities had returned the money and valuables seized from Oschadbank.
Read more: Orbán's Ukrainian gamble: seized cash, the Kremlin connection and Europe's silence