Many Budapest residents were startled this past weekend, on the night of 10–11 May, when they heard strange, loud noises coming from the streets that they had probably never heard before. When they looked out of their windows to see what the commotion was all about, they were indeed reassured: what they saw were armoured military vehicles driving through the city streets.
The tanks were filmed and shared by a Facebook user named Zoltán Hartai, and the footage has been reposted by multiple accounts across multiple platforms. X user Russian Market’s post has received 753 likes and 102 reposts in two days.
As the online comments attest, some fear that the strange sight is a sign of escalation in the Russo–Ukrainian war in Eastern Europe.
However, the largest Hungarian tabloid Blikk has reached out to military historian Dániel Bernényi for an explanation, and he has given a much less hawkish answer:
‘The smallest independent military unit is the company, consisting of three platoons, with an average of 100 men. That, broken down to a tank unit, means 9–10 vehicles, including the command tank, the support personnel, and their vehicles. As there were not that many vehicles present in the case here, the pictures suggest that the tanks were retreating from some kind of demonstration or recruitment event,’ the expert explained.
Following up on that information, the journalist reporting for Blikk did some research and shared that he believes he has solved the case. As it turns out, there had indeed been a public display event for members of the Hungarian Defence Forces in the days before. They appeared at the Ludovika Festival, held at the campus of the Ludovika University of Public Service, on 8–10 May in Budapest, Hungary.
So, thankfully, there is a peaceful explanation for why tanks were rolling through the streets of Budapest at night after all.
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