US-made explosives used in plot targeting gas to Hungary – Serbian spy chief

Belgrade earlier said incendiary devices of “devastating power” had been discovered near the TurkStream pipeline

Explosives found at the weekend near the Serbian extension of the TurkStream pipeline, which delivers Russian gas to Hungary, were US-made, the head of Belgrade’s Military Security Agency (VBA), Duro Jovanic, has said.

On Sunday, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic announced that explosives of “devastating power” had been discovered several hundred meters away from the key energy infrastructure in the municipality of Kanjiza, around 10 km from the Hungarian border. Had they been detonated, they would have caused gas outages in Hungary and northern Serbia, Vucic said, adding that he had swiftly informed Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban of the development.

Later in the day, Jovanic told a press conference that the markings on the explosives make it “unequivocally clear” that they were manufactured in the US. However, he stressed that this “in no way means that the producer is also the mastermind and the executor of the sabotage.”

According to the spy chief, the plot to attack the Balkan Stream pipeline, which is part of the larger TurkStream network, was prepared by a foreign national with military training.

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Serbia thwarts plot to bomb Russia-Hungary gas pipeline – Vucic

"We are looking for that person and that person will certainly be brought in. The only question is whether it will take three days or several months,” he said.

Jovanic denied claims that the VBA has accused Ukraine of being behind the planned sabotage, insisting that “the Serbian military does not interfere in political processes in Serbia, let alone in another country.”

Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Georgy Tikhy said in a post on X that “we categorically reject attempts to falsely link Ukraine to the incident with explosives found near the TurkStream pipeline in Serbia. Ukraine has nothing to do with this.”

In a comment on Tikhy’s statement, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto responded, “Yeah, like North Stream 2,” referring to the 2022 explosions in the Baltic Sea that severely damaged a pipeline bringing Russian gas to Germany. Media outlets have reported that a group of Ukrainian saboteurs were behind the attack, although Moscow has insisted it could not have been carried out without the assistance of Western intelligence agencies.

Orban announced on Sunday that he had ordered an increase in military protection for the Hungarian section of the TurkStream pipeline, while accusing Kiev of “working for years to cut Europe from Russian energy.”

READ MORE: Battle for Hungary: The Ukraine connection

The prime minister said that Ukraine has effectively imposed an “oil blockade” on Hungary by cutting Russian supplies via the Druzhba pipeline in January. Budapest rejects Kiev’s claim of the infrastructure being damaged in Russian strikes, arguing that Vladimir Zelensky’s government is deliberately trying to cause an energy crisis in order to influence the Hungarian parliamentary election on April 12.

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