Ukraine war briefing: Zelenskyy accuses Hungary of ‘banditry’ over $82m of seized gold

The Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, has ordered that a shipment of Ukrainian cash and gold seized last week by Hungarian authorities be held in custody for up to 60 days while his country’s tax authority investigates the case. The gold and the money was being transported through Hungary by road when Hungary seized it last Thursday. Authorities said they suspected money laundering. The shipment included $40m and 35m euros in cash, as well as 9kgs (19.8 pounds) of gold worth about $82m, based on current rates. The seizure followed a dispute over gas supplies, in which Hungary and Slovakia accused Kyiv of deliberately stalling on repairs to an oil pipeline after it was hit in an apparent Russian drone attack.

The seizure has outraged Ukrainian authorities who accused Hungary’s Russia-friendly government of acting illegally. The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, accused Budapest of “banditry” over its seizure of the bank transport, and the temporary detention of its Ukrainian crew. Zelenskyy urged European leaders not to stay silent about Budapest’s actions.

Russian and Ukrainian officials made rival claims of battlefield success, with Ukraine saying it pushed Moscow’s forces back across places on the frontline and the Kremlin insisting Russia’s invasion is making progress. Ukrainian forces have recently retaken nearly all the territory of the south-eastern Dnipropetrovsk industrial region during a counteroffensive, driving Russian troops out of more than 400 sq kilometres (150 sq miles), Maj Gen Oleksandr Komarenko claimed to media outlet RBC-Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, claimed on Tuesday that Russian forces have extended their gains in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, whose capture Moscow has made one of the goals of its invasion. Ukraine controlled about 25% of the Donbas six months ago, but it now holds just 15% to 17%, Putin claimed.

The US has proposed another round of Russia-Ukraine talks, mediated by Washington, Zelenskyy said on Tuesday. The talks could be held in Switzerland or Turkey, he said, after initial plans for a meeting in the United Arab Emirates was disrupted by the US-Israeli war on Iran. Zelenskyy said Ukraine-Russia PoW swaps could be on the agenda. The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, said on Tuesday: “The conflict in Iran must not obstruct the peace efforts for Ukraine.”

Moscow’s deportation and forcible transfer of thousands of children from Ukraine to Russia amounts to a crime against humanity, a UN team of investigators said on Tuesday. The UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine said it had evidence leading it to conclude that “Russian authorities have committed the crimes against humanity of deportation and forcible transfer, as well as of enforced disappearance of children”. The inquiry said Russia had deported or transferred “thousands” of children from occupied areas of Ukraine, of which it had so far confirmed 1,205 cases. “Four years on, 80% of the children deported or transferred in the cases investigated by the commission have not returned,” it said.

Ukrainian forces struck a key plant producing missile components on Tuesday in Russia’s border region of Bryansk, Zelenskyy said. Ukraine’s military said British Storm Shadow missiles were deployed against the Kremniy El factory. It said the facility produced critical missile components. The governor of Bryansk region, Alexander Bogomaz, said on Telegram six civilians were killed and 37 injured.

A Russian strike on the eastern Ukrainian frontline city of Sloviansk killed four people and injured 16 others, local governor Vadym Filashkin said on Tuesday. Filashkin said Russia had dropped three guided bombs on the city, and that a 14-year-old girl was among those wounded.

A decision by the Venice Biennale to allow Russia to participate in this year’s event came under fire from the EU on Tuesday, which warned it could cut funding. “We strongly condemn the decision” and are looking at taking action, including suspending an EU grant to the organising body, two top members of the European Commission said in a statement. Kyiv last weekend called on the Biennale to reverse its decision and to exclude Russia, as it had done at the last two Venice art exhibitions, in 2022 and 2024.