Questions Arise Over Ukrainian Role in Development of Tisza Party App and Massive Data Leak

Although Peter Magyar and his team deny it, several Ukrainian specialists may have taken part in developing and testing the Tisza Party’s mobile application — according to a massive database containing some 200,000 names that appeared online at the end of last week, allegedly leaked from the Tisza Vilag (Tisza World) app. While Peter Magyar blamed the incident on a Russian hacker attack, recent developments suggest that Ukrainians have become increasingly involved around Tisza Party. To the extent that, by now, they appear to have thoroughly infiltrated the party.

"The Tisza Vilag application was developed by Hungarian experts. No Ukrainian company or individual was commissioned for the work,"  the news portal of HVG quoted the party’s official response on October 8, two days after the Tisza data leak scandal erupted. Just two days earlier, Index reported that approximately twenty thousand users’ data had leaked from the party’s Tisza Vilag mobile app that may have been developed with Ukrainian involvement.

 Tisza Party idyll: Peter Magyar and his Ukrainian contact, Roland Ivanovich Tseber (Source: Instagram)

The Tisza Party’s October statement now appears in a new light after the publication of the enormous list of 200,000 names that surfaced at the end of last week. As Magyar Nemzet reported, multiple signs point to the possibility that this massive database also originated from the Tisza Vilag platform. Information and early analyses in the press suggest that the first entries on the list correspond to accounts belonging to individuals who took part in developing or testing the app.

Among those entries — alongside other foreign participants — are roughly half a dozen accounts marked with Ukrainian state identifiers, most linked to the city of Uzhhorod (Ungvar). This strongly suggests that, despite their denials, Peter Magyar’s team may indeed have worked with Ukrainians during the development and testing phases of the app.

On Sunday, Peter Magyar addressed the issue publicly, claiming that international hackers, allegedly backed by Russian intelligence, were responsible for the cyberattack. However, by framing the incident as a theft of existing data rather than as falsification or manipulation, the Tisza Party leader effectively confirmed the authenticity of the leaked information.

Uzhhorod, the Common Thread

Let us return to the city name Uzhhorod, which appears multiple times in the newly leaked 200,000-name database. In the smaller data leak earlier in October, containing around 20,000 names, one of the listed administrators was identified as Ukrainian IT specialist Miroslav Tokar from Uzhhorod. According to Index, Tokar works for a mobile app development company.

That company, PettersonApps, is Ukrainian, and its CEO is reportedly a supporter of Volodymyr Zelensky. Through an NGO, the firm is also said to have contributed to projects related to drone development for the Ukrainian army.

All these circumstances raise a serious question: could the personal data of hundreds of thousands of Hungarians now be in Ukrainian hands?

Spies Everywhere

While the Tisza Party has tried to deny using PettersonApps during the app’s development, it is increasingly difficult for them to conceal their broader connections with Ukrainian actors.

In recent months, Magyar Nemzet has documented numerous examples of Ukrainian influence within the Tisza Party — to such an extent that Peter Magyar and his circle seem fully entangled. One of the clearest cases occurred last summer, when Peter Magyar traveled to Kyiv, then under Russian bombardment, in a trip organized within 24 hours by Roland Tseber, a man expelled from Hungary the previous autumn for espionage. Hungarian intelligence identified Tseber as an illegal officer of Ukraine’s intelligence services.

Ruszin-Szendi Also Appears 

A travel and residency ban was imposed on Tseber after he organized a meeting between a former high-ranking officer of the Hungarian military and several foreign investors and arms industry representatives. That former officer attending the meeting was none other than Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi, now one of Peter Magyar’s closest allies. The former Chief of Staff is also linked to another figure in the Ukrainian spy scandal, Istvan Hollo. Moreover, during NATO Chiefs of Defense meetings, Ruszin-Szendi was known to express pro-Ukrainian views, contradicting Hungary’s official anti-war position.

Aiming for a Change of Government

Magyar Nemzet has also repeatedly detailed how, in the European Parliament, the Tisza Party has consistently represented Ukrainian interests. The party's MEPs have supported Ukraine’s financial and military aid in every possible way and on every occasion.

Earlier this year, in May, the Hungarian government made public that Ukraine had launched a smear campaign against Hungary, aiming to disrupt a domestic consultation initiative concerning Ukraine’s EU membership. Prime Minister Viktor Orban stated after a meeting of the National Defense Council that: "It was revealed that, to carry out the operation, the Ukrainians reactivated their Hungarian connections and, with the help of a Hungarian political party, launched an attack against the Hungarian Defense Forces." The likely objective of this operation was to shift the Hungarian government’s stance on two issues: Ukraine’s accelerated EU accession and support for the war. Since the Orban government firmly rejects both, Kyiv and its allies are interested in a change of government in Budapest. This is also reinforced by several Ukrainian public statements.

               

       

       
       

            További játékainkhoz kattintson ide!