Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) says it has exposed a Russian information operation targeting the ethnic Hungarian community in Zakarpattia Oblast. Russian agents reportedly used IP telephony to fake Ukrainian phone numbers and threaten Hungarians while posing as Ukrainian law enforcement. Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said the operation shows Russia is interfering in Hungary's April 12 parliamentary election on Viktor Orbán's behalf.
How Russia faked the calls and what callers demanded
Russian agents exploited IP telephony number-spoofing to make calls appear to come from Ukrainian phone numbers. The SBU's technical analysis confirmed that the calls originated from Russian Federation territory. The technique made Moscow's threatening campaign look like domestic Ukrainian harassment of a minority community.
Callers posed as Ukrainian law enforcement officers and members of "national-patriotic formations." They demanded that ethnic Hungarian community members leave Ukrainian territory and threatened physical violence. The SBU said it is working to block the operation and urged anyone receiving threats to contact law enforcement immediately.
Kyiv: Russia is running Orbán's fear campaign for him
Sybiha said the exposure "demonstrates the scale of Russian interference in Hungarian elections on the side of Viktor Orbán," adding that coordination with Orbán's campaign "cannot be excluded."
Hungary votes on 12 April in what analysts call the most competitive election pro-Russian PM Orbán has faced since taking power in 2010. Magyar's Tisza party leads Fidesz by 14 points.
One week earlier, Orbán posted an unverified "Ukrainian threat" campaign video
On 11 March — one week before the SBU disclosure — Orbán posted a video to social media in which he called his children to warn them "Ukrainians" had threatened his family. Russian expert András Rácz described the man in the video as "an elderly man, not in the best condition, talking nonsense — if the recording is even genuine." Investigative journalists, working alongside European security services, have established that Putin tasked a group of political technologists and Russian military intelligence with interfering in Hungary's April parliamentary elections to secure an Orbán victory.
