Overview
- Serbian authorities, who said Sunday they found two backpacks holding explosives with detonators a few hundred meters from the Balkan Stream line in Kanjiza, opened a probe and warned the devices could have endangered lives and cut gas supplies.
- Hungary, following Sunday’s emergency defense council called by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, ordered troops to guard its TurkStream section from the Serbian border to the Slovak border, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said.
- Serbia’s military security chief said Monday investigators had found no Ukrainian trace and noted markings indicating U.S.-made explosives, while cautioning that a manufacturer’s mark does not identify who planned or carried out the plot.
- Orbán allies suggested Ukrainian responsibility, while Kyiv rejected any link and said it was likely a Russian false-flag operation, sharpening a dispute in the final week before Hungary’s April 12 election.
- Opposition leader Péter Magyar called the episode a staged bid to sway voters, as the Kremlin said it was highly likely evidence would show Ukrainian involvement, against a backdrop of Hungary and Serbia’s heavy reliance on Russian energy and memories of the 2022 Nord Stream blasts.