By Olena Harmash
KYIV, March 5 (Reuters) - Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha accused Hungary early on Friday of detaining seven employees of Ukraine's state savings bank after a fresh exchange of barbs between the two countries' leaders.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had earlier in the day taunted Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban for blocking a European aid package. Orban said Budapest would force Ukraine with "political and financial tools" to reopen the Druzhba pipeline carrying Russian oil to Hungarian refineries.
Sybiha, writing on the X social media platform, said the employees of Oshchadbank were transporting cash from Austria back to Ukraine through Hungary when they were detained. He said their whereabouts were unknown at the moment.
"In fact, we are talking about Hungary taking hostages and stealing money," Sybiha wrote. "If this is the 'force' announced earlier today by Mr Orban, then this is a force of a criminal gang. This is state terrorism and racketeering."
He said Ukraine had sent an official note demanding the immediate release of its citizens and would ask the European Union to "provide a clear qualification of Hungary’s unlawful actions".
Oshchadbank said a GPS signal showed the cars to be near a building of Hungary's security services in Budapest. It said the employees were carrying $40 million, 35 million euros and 9 kg of gold.
Zelenskiy's remarks earlier in the day referred to a 90 billion euro EU aid package that Hungary has blocked.
TENSION AS THE WAR DRAGS ON
Tension has long been high between the two leaders during Russia's four-year war on Ukraine, with Orban maintaining a staunchly anti-interventionist stance. EU member Hungary has maintained cordial ties with Moscow.
"We hope a certain person in the EU will not keep blocking the 90 billion... and Ukrainian soldiers will have weapons," Zelenskiy told reporters in Kyiv.
"Otherwise, we will give the address of this person to our armed forces, our guys. Let them call him, speak with him in their own language."
Ukraine relies on financial aid from partners to cover its budgetary needs while it funnels most state funds to defence.
Hungary's veto of the aid package, as well as new EU sanctions on Russia, came in response to what it says was Ukraine deliberately cutting supplies from the Druzhba pipeline carrying Russian crude to Europe.
Kyiv says the oil flows stopped after a Russian attack on pipeline infrastructure in January and it is fixing the damage as fast as it can. Zelenskiy said on Thursday that the Soviet-era pipeline could be operational within a month and a half.
Hungary and Slovakia, the only European Union countries still importing Russian oil, accuse Ukraine of deliberately delaying the resumption of oil flows for political reasons.
Orban, referring to the dispute over the pipeline, told a business conference in Budapest: "I would like to make clear that we will win, and we will win with force."
"We have no military force for this, I can reassure everyone that this is not part of our plans. But we have political and financial tools," said Orban, who faces elections on April 12 and has made the war a focal point in his campaign.
Zelenskiy in further remarks laced with sarcasm, said Ukraine was facing deadly attacks from Russia "and we're supposed to give poor little Orban oil, because without it he won't win elections?"
Ukraine's troops are fending off grinding Russian assaults along several parts of the 1,200-km (775-mile) front line, as Kyiv faces U.S. pressure to secure peace while resisting Russian demands to cede land.
Despite being outgunned and outmanned, Kyiv's army has retaken territory in recent weeks, gaining more in February than it lost for the first time since 2023, according to the Finland-based Black Bird Group analysis team.
European foreign ministers failed this month to persuade Budapest not to punish Ukraine for delays restarting the pipeline, which also supplies Slovakia, also bordering Ukraine.
Slovakia, whose Prime Minister Robert Fico is also sympathetic to the Kremlin, said it would refuse requests from Kyiv for emergency electricity supplies until oil flows resume.
($1 = 0.8625 euros)
(Writing by Dan PeleschukEditing by Alexandra Hudson, Ron Popeski and Lincoln Feast.)
