Hungary Accuses Ukraine of Planning to Disrupt Energy System

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban accused Ukraine of planning to disrupt the Hungarian energy system and ordered that soldiers be deployed to safeguard critical infrastructure on Feb. 25.

According to a translation by Reuters of his remarks in a video posted to Facebook, the Hungarian leader said that “Ukraine is preparing further actions to disrupt the operation of the Hungarian energy system.”

“Therefore, I have ordered the reinforcement of protection for critical energy infrastructure,” he said. “This means that we will deploy soldiers and equipment necessary to repel attacks near key energy facilities.”

He reiterated his allegation that the Druzhba pipeline, which provides Hungary with Russian crude oil, was shut down for “political, not technical, reasons,” and said intelligence reports show possible further disruption to Hungary’s energy system.

“Hungary cannot be blackmailed!” he said in a written post accompanying the video.

The Druzhba pipeline is a roughly 2,485-mile artery carrying Russian oil into the landlocked heart of Europe. “Druzhba” means “friendship” in many Slavic languages.

The move by Orban escalates an ongoing dispute that Hungary and Slovakia, which also receives shipments via the Druzhba, have with Ukraine over a stoppage of the flow of Russian crude.

Budapest and Bratislava both blame Ukraine for the prolonged halt to supplies for their refineries, while Kyiv says the outage was caused by a Russian drone strike hitting pipeline equipment in Western Ukraine in January.

The Epoch Times contacted the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.

Hungary and Slovakia have maintained closer ties with Moscow than other European Union member states and disagreed with Brussels over military support for Ukraine.

On Feb. 23, Hungary vetoed new EU sanctions on Russia and a huge loan for Ukraine amid a dispute over the oil supplies.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, ahead of the Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Brussels, where the 20th package of EU sanctions against Russia was set to be passed, explained Budapest’s reasons for blocking the move.

“We don’t hate Ukraine,” he said. “The problem is that the Ukrainian state hates Hungary, and the Ukrainian state carries out an anti-Hungarian political approach for the last 10 years. Ukraine behaves in a very hostile manner towards Hungary.”

“Please ask the Ukrainians why they have stopped the oil deliveries to Hungary, ask the Ukrainians why they put the security of energy supply of Hungary into risk, why they do not give back the rights to the Hungarian national community, why they endanger our energy security,” he said.

Szijjarto also dismissed allegations that Hungary was financing Russia’s war against Ukraine by continuing to purchase oil from Moscow, saying that Budapest’s purchases amounted to just 0.2 percent of Russian gross domestic product.

The same day Hungary nixed the sanctions package, Slovakia, also irked by the halting of oil supplies via the Druzhba, announced that it would refuse any requests from Ukraine for emergency electricity supplies until oil flows resumed.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said in a statement that starting on Feb. 23, “if the Ukrainian side turns to Slovakia with a request for assistance in stabilizing the Ukrainian energy network, it will not receive such assistance.”

Fico said the measures would be canceled once the flow of oil to his country resumed.

Ukraine Says Repairs Cannot Be Fast

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Feb. 25 that repairs to the pipeline could not be carried out quickly.

“Firstly, it’s not that fast,” he told reporters, noting that Russian strikes had destroyed the pipeline linking the Black Sea Port of Odesa with Druzhba.

“This is not their first strike, and they continue to hit the energy sector.

“They advise us to repair it, but they know that there have already been attacks on Druzhba. Our people were injured so that it would work.”

Reuters and Victoria Friedman contributed to this report.