Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán arrives to attend the European Council Summit to be held at EU Headquarters in Brussels on March 21, 2024.
Samir Aldumy | AFP | Getty Images
Hungary has accused Ukraine of interfering with oil supplies it receives from Russia and has troops stationed at key energy facilities across the country as Prime Minister Viktor Orbán increases his rhetoric on energy and national security ahead of parliamentary elections in April.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Wednesday accused Kiev of imposing an “oil blockade” on the country by delaying the restart of the Druzhba pipeline, which supplies Russian oil to Hungary and neighboring Slovakia.
Ukraine shut down the pipeline a month ago, citing damage to it in a Russian attack, but Hungary’s leader accused Kiev of deliberately keeping it closed for “political” rather than “technical” reasons.
“The Ukrainian government is putting pressure on the Hungarian and Slovak governments through the oil blockade,” Prime Minister Orbán said in an X video after Wednesday’s Hungarian Defense Council meeting.
“They will not stop there,” he claimed, without providing further details or evidence, adding: “They are preparing further actions to disrupt the Hungarian energy system.”
“I have ordered increased protection of critical energy infrastructure. This means that soldiers and necessary equipment will be deployed near key energy facilities to repel potential attacks,” Prime Minister Orbán said.
“Police will also increase patrols around designated power plants, distribution stations and control centres,” he said. The use of drones was also banned in the northeastern border region with Ukraine.
Ukraine has not publicly responded to the accusations, and CNBC has requested a response from the country’s foreign ministry.
As Hungary’s leadership struggles to hold on to power ahead of parliamentary elections in April, rhetoric over energy and national security has intensified and anti-Ukrainian sentiment has been on the rise.
Mr Orbán’s right-wing Fidesz party is trailing in most independent opinion polls, with former party insider and center-right challenger Peter Magyar leading voter surveys ahead of the April 12 vote.
messy relationship
The comments came amid fractious relations between the two countries over energy, Russia-related sanctions and the ongoing war.
EU countries Hungary and Slovakia continue to import Russian oil and gas despite the EU’s efforts to curb such imports and want an outright ban, with both countries saying their economies and populations depend on Russia’s cheap energy supplies.
But the relationship with Russia goes beyond just energy; the two leaders, Hungary’s Orbán and Slovakia’s Prime Minister Roberto Fico, both have good relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, but a frosty relationship with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
On Thursday morning, President Orbán posted an open letter to Zelenskiy on Facebook, accusing him of “working for four years to force Hungary into a war with Russia.”
On July 5, 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin met with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban at the Moscow Kremlin.
Valerie Sharifrin | AFP | Getty Images
Hungary and Slovakia have frequently opposed EU sanctions against Russia for its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and this week, which coincided with the fourth anniversary of the conflict, again blocked an EU attempt to impose further punitive measures against Russia.
Both sides said the veto was due to the suspension of Russian oil shipments through the Druzhba pipeline (a Soviet-era pipeline whose name translates as “friendship”), which connects the two countries through Ukraine.
Both countries’ closeness to Russia and reluctance to impose sanctions has strained relations with Brussels, which has accused the EU of turning a blind eye to its own energy needs.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó went further on Wednesday, saying Europe was overlooking incidents that implicated Ukraine as being behind sabotage of Russian and European energy infrastructure, including the explosion of the Nord Stream gas pipeline connecting Russia and Germany.
Ukraine denies involvement in damaging one of the pipelines, but German investigators say the saboteurs were Ukrainian.
“Today the same people who are blocking the Friendship oil pipeline are the same ones who blew up the Nord Stream gas pipeline. This is the current situation and we cannot allow it to happen,” Szijjarto said in comments carried by state news agency MTI. He provided no evidence of the accusation.
