Hungary, Ukraine in Heated Feud Over Strikes on Druzhba Pipeline

Budapest and Kyiv are at odds again after a fiery exchange of social media posts between Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha over repeated Ukrainian strikes on the Druzhba oil pipeline, which is critical to Hungary’s energy supply.

Szijjártó announced on Monday that Ukraine had once again ‘attacked the oil pipeline leading to Hungary, cutting off supplies’, calling the strike outrageous and unacceptable. He argued that these attacks are part of the more than three-year-long attempts by Brussels and Kyiv to ‘drag Hungary into war’, adding that the government would not allow them to succeed. Concluding his statement, Szijjártó reminded the Ukrainian leadership that ‘electricity from Hungary plays a vital role in powering’ the war-torn country.

Last week, after similar strikes on the pipeline, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in a podcast that Hungary could bring about Ukraine’s collapse in a single day by cutting off electricity supplies. ‘If an accident happened—if some pylons fell, if some wires were cut—Ukraine would grind to a halt,’ he declared.

Replying to Szijjártó’s statement, Andrii Sybiha wrote that ‘it is Russia, not Ukraine, who began the war and refuses to end it.’ The Ukrainian foreign minister went on to argue that ‘Hungary has been told for years that Moscow is an unreliable partner’, yet Budapest has ‘made every effort’ to maintain ‘its reliance’ on Russian energy. ‘You can now send your complaints—and threats—to your friends in Moscow,’ Sybiha concluded. Notably, the Ukrainian foreign minister did not deny or reject that Kyiv was behind the strike. In fact, on Monday night, Robert ‘Madyar’ Brovdi, who heads Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, confirmed that drones of the 14th Regiment of the Unmanned Systems Unit attacked the Nikolskoye oil pumping station in the Tambov region, which halted the operation of the Druzhba route.

According to Szijjártó’s original post, Hungary had already contacted Russia regarding the attack. Deputy Energy Minister Pavel Sorokin stated that ‘experts are working to restore the transformer station essential for operating the pipeline, but for now they cannot say when deliveries will resume.’

Reacting to Sybiha’s reply, Szijjártó said that his Ukrainian counterpart had ignored key facts. First, ‘Russia has supplied oil to Hungary for decades via the Druzhba pipeline’, which is in ‘Hungary’s interest’; and second, that due to Ukrainian strikes, oil supplies to Hungary are repeatedly disrupted. ‘This is against Hungary’s interest,’ Szijjártó stressed. He added that, as Hungary’s foreign minister, he puts the national interest above all else. ‘And let’s not forget: a significant part of Ukraine’s electricity comes from Hungary…’ Szijjártó concluded, echoing his earlier post.

The Russian Foreign Ministry also joined the dispute, with spokeswoman Maria Zakharova condemning the Ukrainian strike on Telegram and stating that the attack demonstrated that ‘the Kyiv regime is not restrained by anything.’

Hungary imports more than 80 per cent of its oil from Russia, and the Druzhba pipeline remains a vital route in the country’s energy supply. According to Kyiv Independent, Slovak pipeline operator Transpetrol also reportedly confirmed that oil supplies to Slovakia had stopped but said it was unaware of the reason for the suspension, which occurred outside of its territory.

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