According to Oschadbank and multiple media reports, the cargo consisted of $40 million, €35 million and 9 kilograms of bank gold. The staff have since returned to Ukraine, but the vehicles and valuables have not been returned.
The incident began on 5 March, when Hungarian authorities stopped the armoured vehicles on Hungarian territory. Hungary’s National Tax and Customs Administration said criminal proceedings had been opened on suspicion of money laundering. It also said the case involved the Counter Terrorism Centre. That official explanation immediately triggered protests from Kyiv, which insisted the shipment was a lawful banking transfer.
Oschadbank says the transfer was a regular wartime operation carried out under an international arrangement with Raiffeisen Bank Austria. The bank stated that the movement of foreign currency and bank metals by road has been taking place regularly since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, because wartime conditions have sharply limited normal transport routes. It also said the shipment was documented in line with international transport requirements and current European customs procedures.
The seven detained employees were later released and returned to Ukraine. Available reporting indicates that they were not charged. According to reporting by AP and Kyiv Post, they were questioned as witnesses in proceedings against an unknown perpetrator rather than being formally accused themselves. That left the central dispute focused on Hungary’s continued retention of the two vehicles and their cargo, not on any prosecution of the Oschadbank staff.
On 7 March, Oschadbank said it would begin legal action to recover its property. In a public statement, the bank said the vehicles and valuables remained unlawfully detained. It said it would challenge restrictive measures reportedly imposed by Hungarian migration authorities and would also pursue the return of the seized assets in full. The bank further said an independent international auditing firm could be engaged to verify the contracts and procedures governing the transfer.
Oschadbank also said documentation relating to the transfer had already been submitted to the National Bank of Ukraine for review. The bank’s position is that the cash and gold were its own property and that their transportation complied with Ukrainian law. The issue, from Oschadbank’s perspective, is therefore not the legality of the transfer but the legality of Hungary’s decision to stop it and continue holding the assets after the release of the staff.
The case has added to already strained relations between Kyiv and Budapest. Hungary and Ukraine were already in dispute over the disruption of Russian oil transit through the Druzhba pipeline, and those tensions have spilled into broader political and diplomatic confrontation. Reporting by AP, Reuters and other outlets has linked the convoy seizure to that wider deterioration in bilateral ties, which has intensified in the run-up to Hungary’s parliamentary election.
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The episode has also developed a disinformation dimension. Ukrainian reporting said fake AI-generated images connected to the detained Oschadbank staff circulated online after the seizure, feeding anti-Ukrainian narratives around the case. Hungarian outlet Telex also reported on the bank’s claims and the broader dispute, reflecting the extent to which the affair quickly moved beyond a customs matter and became part of a wider political and media confrontation.
For now, the basic facts remain straightforward. Two Oschadbank armoured vehicles carrying large sums of cash and bank gold were stopped in Hungary. Seven Ukrainian bank employees were detained, questioned and later allowed to return home. No charges against them have been publicly reported. The vehicles, dollars, euros and gold remain in Hungarian hands. Hungary says the seizure is tied to a money-laundering investigation. Oschadbank says the transfer was lawful and is now seeking the return of its property through legal channels.
Image source: dreamtown.ua.
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