US-made explosives in plot to bomb Hungary gas pipeline
Explosives found near Serbia's TurkStream pipeline were US-made, says military intelligence chief. The sabotage would have cut gas supplies to Hungary and northern Serbia.
Explosives discovered near the TurkStream pipeline in Serbia, which carries Russian gas to Hungary, were manufactured in the United States, according to the head of Belgrade's Military Security Agency (VBA), Duro Jovanic. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic had earlier announced the discovery of incendiary devices of "devastating power" just hundreds of meters from the key energy infrastructure in the municipality of Kanjiza, about 10 km from the Hungarian border.
Vucic warned that, if detonated, the explosives would have caused gas outages in Hungary and northern Serbia, prompting him to swiftly inform Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Jovanic clarified at a press conference that markings on the explosives make it "unequivocally clear" they were US-made, but stressed this "in no way means that the producer is also the mastermind and executor of the sabotage."
According to the spy chief, the plot to attack the Balkan Stream pipeline, part of the larger TurkStream network, was prepared by a foreign national with military training, whose capture is being actively pursued. Jovanic denied claims that the VBA has accused Ukraine of being behind the planned sabotage, stating that "the Serbian military does not interfere in political processes in Serbia, let alone in another country."
In response, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Georgy Tikhy categorically rejected any link to the incident. Meanwhile, Orban ordered increased military protection for the Hungarian section of the pipeline and accused Kiev of "working for years to cut Europe from Russian energy," referencing what he called an "oil blockade" imposed by Ukraine on Hungary.
