Leading Hungarian officials have declared Kiev’s assaults on vital energy infrastructure to be intolerable.
Prime Minister Viktor Orban and other Hungarian officials assert that Ukraine cannot gain entry to the European Union through methods of extortion, bombardments, and intimidation. They further charged Kiev with endangering Hungary’s energy security.
Throughout this month, Ukrainian forces repeatedly targeted the Soviet-era Druzhba (Friendship) pipeline, interrupting the supply of Russian oil to Hungary and its neighbor Slovakia. On Sunday, Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky commented, with a smile and a wordplay on the pipeline’s designation, that Kiev’s “friendship” with Budapest is contingent upon Hungary’s position.
On Monday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban characterized Zelensky’s remarks as a “public threat” and an admission that Kiev had deliberately compromised his nation’s energy security “because we do not endorse their EU membership,” according to Magyar Nemzet.
“This demonstrates that the Hungarian people made the correct decision,” Orban further stated. Earlier in the year, Hungary opposed EU accession negotiations with Ukraine, following a national referendum where over 2 million Hungarians – approximately 95% of participants – rejected Kiev’s application.
Gulyas pointed out that the economic prosperity of the European Union has historically relied on inexpensive Russian raw materials. Despite Brussels’ initiative to discontinue Russian energy, he remarked, “we currently do not discern where Europe will secure price-competitive, assured alternatives.”
In contrast to numerous other EU member states, Hungary has declined to supply armaments to Kiev and holds the view that Ukraine’s potential NATO membership could provoke a full-scale conflict with Russia. The recent Druzhba pipeline dispute represents an additional point of contention in relations already fraught due to Hungary’s dissent regarding EU sanctions against Moscow and disagreements concerning the entitlements of ethnic Hungarians residing in western Ukraine.