Peter Szijjarto said after a cabinet meeting that the government has reviewed the situation after crude deliveries were stopped on Jan 27. "Despite promises and assurances, it has still not been restored due to a Ukrainian political decision even though every technical condition is at hand, according to our information," he said.

Szijjarto said the "political decision" had been made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky personally.

The "political blackmail", he said, was aimed at pushing Hungary to fulfil Kyiv's demands and strong-arm the government into "supporting the war, allowing Hungarians' money to be taken to Ukraine and to allow Ukraine into the EU."

Further, Szijjarto said Hungary was expected to give up using cheap Russian energy resources and give up the utility price caps.

He said he firmly rejected such "Ukrainian interference" and that Hungary's future would be decided exclusively by Hungarians "even if Zelensky is trying to whip up an oil supply crisis here".

Meanwhile, Szijjarto said Hungary had an important role in Ukraine's energy supply by delivering a substantial amount of electricity, gas and diesel.

"I would like to inform you that diesel fuel deliveries towards Ukraine have been stopped. It will not be restarted until Ukraine resumes crude deliveries to Hungary through the Druzhba pipeline," he said.

Szijjarto called on Hungarians to "stand up against Ukrainian blackmail [by filling out] the national petition; let's say no to Hungary being dragged into the war and to higher energy prices."

The government is doing everything possible to ensure secure crude supplies and to preserve the utility price cuts, he said. For now, none of those are in danger, not even through "Ukrainian political blackmail", he said. "We have reserves sufficient for more than three months, and its use of parts of it is being decided now,"

Szijjarto also noted that he and his Slovak counterpart have notified the European Commission in a letter that the two countries were taking advantage of an earlier agreement with the EC, under which they may import Russian crude through maritime channels should pipeline deliveries become impossible.

The EU regulation on the matter was binding "for Croatia too", he said, referring to negotiations with that country on oil deliveries from port through the Adria pipeline. The delivery had already been ordered and is expected to arrive by mid-March, he added.

"I would like to highlight once again: neither Hungary's fuel nor its energy supplies are at risk, despite Ukrainian political blackmail," Szijjarto said.

Later on Wednesday, Ukrainian foreign affairs spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi said on Telegram that "Hungary knows perfectly well that the Druzhba pipeline stopped because Russia has hit it."

"From the very first day, Hungary has been perfectly aware of the reasons behind the delivery outage on the pipeline. In this situation, it seems strange that the Hungarian partner has failed to issue statements clearly stating that Russia has targeted the pipeline, their favourite oil fix," he said.

Fidesz communications director Tamas Menczer said on Facebook in response that Tykhyi had compared Hungarians to "drug addicts for using Russian oil, saying we didn't want to kick the habit". He called the statement "disgusting".

"No Ukrainian has the right to insult Hungarians," he said.

"The word the Ukrainians are looking for is thank you for Hungary's largest humanitarian action in its history, launched to aid Ukraine."

He called on Tykhyi to "stop lying". "We know perfectly well that the Druzhba pipeline is in good working order, capable of deliveries, and also that deliveries were stopped because of a decision of Zelensky's. This is a political attack," he said.

"You want us to support the war and Ukraine's EU membership and to wean Hungary off cheap Russian energy. The Tisza party is assisting you in all that, but we aren't," Menczer said.
 

The Hungarian government will protect Hungarian interests including energy security and the utility price caps, he said.

Orban: "Ukraine blackmailing Hungary"

"Ukraine is blackmailing Hungary, they have stopped the flow of oil on the Druzhba pipeline, we have to free up our strategic reserves," Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in a video posted on Facebook on Wednesday.

This is the first point on the agenda of today's government meeting, the prime minister added.

In the video, Orban said the aim of the Ukrainian blackmail was to force Hungary to join the coalition of pro-war European countries.

"So there is huge pressure in Europe to continue the war, and Ukraine specifically wants all of us, all European countries, including Hungary, to join the war," the prime minister said.

"Today we are still struggling with this," Orban concluded his video.
 

Source: MTI – Hungary’s national news agency since 1881. While MTI articles are usually factual, some may contain political bias, and readers should be aware that such content does not reflect the position of XpatLoop, which is neutral and independent.

Since the goal of XpatLoop is to keep readers well briefed, right across the spectrum of opinions, MTI items are shared to ensure readers are aware of all narratives within the local media.

XpatLoop believes in empowering readers to form their own views through complete and comprehensive coverage. To facilitate this XpatLoop has a balanced range of news partners, as you can see when you surf around XpatLoop.com
 

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