The relationship between Ukraine and Hungary has become increasingly tense following the suspension of Russian oil deliveries to Hungary and Slovakia in January, attributed to damage sustained by the Druzhba pipeline, which traverses Ukrainian territory. Ukrainian officials have held the Russian drone attacks responsible for this damage.
Authoritarian Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of deliberately delaying oil supplies, a claim the Ukrainian President has firmly denied.
Consequently, Orbán has vetoed the €90 billion European Union loan designed to support Ukraine’s military and economic needs over the next two years. Additionally, Hungary is currently obstructing the adoption of new EU sanctions against Russia.
A Russian strike damaged the ‘Druzhba’ pipeline. However, Hungary never condemned Russia’s actions. “Their friends in Moscow destroyed it—but they put forward demands to Ukraine,” noted Heorhii Tykhyi, Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.
In a post on X, Tykhyi explained that Ukraine faces large-scale air terror from Russia. “Our infrastructure is being damaged every day. There have already been other damages to other Ukrainian pipelines, for example, the Odesa-Brody,” he said.
The MFA spokesperson said that Ukraine is repairing all of that. However, the country doesn’t have unlimited resources. “We are in a full-scale war, which Hungary decides to ignore for some reason,” he highlighted.
“We regret that Hungary systematically tries to drag Ukraine into its domestic politics and its electoral campaign. We reject such attempts from the Hungarian side,” Tykhyi added.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán faces a critical election in April, in which a pro-EU rival contests his rule. Panicked by the opinion poll results that don’t favour him, he made Ukraine part of his campaign, making Kyiv’s government one of his major enemies, on par with the European Commission.
Thus, Orbán mentions President Volodymyr Zelenskyy more times than Hungary, said Tykhyi. This “makes us wonder whether the elections are unfolding in Hungary or in Ukraine, and whether Prime Minister Orbán is running to lead Ukraine or Hungary.”
The spokesperson of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs invited Orbán to tell his people about the state of his economy, about what his government is doing, why they failed to diversify energy supply to Hungary, and “other issues which are probably of more concern to Hungarians than the President of Ukraine and other Ukraine-related issues that, unfortunately, Prime Minister Orbán is so focused on.”
