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Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic<\/a> said the army and police had found two backpacks containing explosives Sunday near a gas pipeline to Hungary<\/a>, prompting Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban<\/a> to call an emergency meeting.<\/p>\n Hungary’s opposition leader Peter Magyar however suggested the incident could be a “false flag” operation staged to disrupt next Sunday’s high-stakes elections in their country.<\/p>\n The backpacks, containing “two large packages of explosives with detonators”, were found in Kanjiza in northern Serbia<\/a>, “a few hundred metres from the gas pipeline”, Vucic said.<\/p>\n The pipeline, known as Balkan Stream, is an extension of the TurkStream pipeline that carries Russian gas to Serbia and Hungary.<\/p>\n Vucic said he had informed Orban “of the initial results of the investigation by our military and police authorities”.<\/p>\n Orban called the pipeline a piece of “critical gas infrastructure” and said he would gather Hungary’s national defence council for a meeting on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n But his opposition rival Magyar, in a post on X, expressed scepticism about the incident.<\/p>\n “For weeks, we’ve been receiving warnings from multiple sources that… Orban\u00a0\u2013 allegedly with Serbian and Russian assistance\u00a0\u2013 may be planning to cross another line,” he posted on X.<\/p>\n “Many people have suggested that something might ‘accidentally’ happen in Serbia, possibly involving a gas pipeline, around Easter,” he added, calling to be included in the national defence council meeting.<\/p>\n “I also want to make it clear that (Orban) will not be able to prevent next Sunday’s election,” Magyar said.<\/p>\n \u2060Ukraine’s \u200bforeign ministry strongly \u200brejected what it \u200bsaid \u200cwere \u2060attempts to \u200clink Kyiv<\/a> to powerful explosives \u2060found by Serbian authorities \u200bnear the Turkstream \u200cpipeline system.<\/p>\n “Ukraine<\/a> has nothing to \u200cdo with \u200bthis,” foreign ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi said \u200bon X. “Most \u200bprobably, a \u200bRussian false-flag operation \u200bas part of Moscow’s heavy interference in Hungarian \u2060elections<\/a>.”<\/p>\n Serbian authorities gave no details on possible motives. Vucic said there were “certain traces” he could not immediately discuss.<\/p>\n “Our intelligence services did a good job,” he said.<\/p>\n Vucic said the explosives could have “endangered many lives” and caused significant damage to the pipeline.<\/p>\n Read more<\/span>Why Hungary’s Viktor Orban is vilifying Ukraine before crucial elections<\/a><\/p>\n Serbia, an EU candidate, is heavily dependent on Russian gas, importing around six million cubic metres (212 million cubic feet) per day at about half the market price.<\/p>\n Hungary also relies on imported Russian oil and gas.<\/p>\n In recent weeks, Orban has repeatedly accused the Ukrainian government of intentionally delaying repairs to a separate damaged pipeline through Ukraine, which has choked the flow of Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia<\/a>.<\/p>\n Orban has blocked EU approval of a 90-billion-euro ($104-billion) loan to Ukraine over the pipeline feud.<\/p>\n Hungarian opposition figures and many of Orban’s counterparts in the European Union<\/a> have accused him of exaggerating the pipeline issue to bolster his electoral campaign, with his party trailing in the polls.<\/p>\n Orban denies the claims.<\/p>\nHigh-stakes election\u00a0<\/h2>\n