Hungary FM: Brussels Floats Sending Hungarian Troops To Ukraine For First Time

Hungary’s minister of foreign affairs and trade said it was the first time Brussels voiced its expectation to deploy Hungarian troops to Ukraine. Reporting on the meeting of the EU’s Foreign Affairs Council, FM Szijjarto also revealed that Ukraine’s foreign minister was unable to answer why independent experts are not being allowed to examine the Druzhba oil pipeline.

Hungarian FM Peter Szijjarto delivers remarks to the media ahead of the European Union Foreign Affairs Council meeting focused on the latest developments in Ukraine and the Middle East, in Brussels, Belgium, on February 23, 2026. Dursun Aydemir / Anadolu (Photo by Dursun Aydemir / Anadolu via AFP)

At Monday’s meeting of the European Union’s Foreign Affairs Council, it was clearly stated for the first time as an expectation that Hungarian troops should also go to Ukraine, the minister of foreign affairs and trade said Wednesday in Budapest. Peter Szijjarto added that Ukraine’s foreign minister was unable to answer why Hungarian and Slovak experts are not permitted to inspect the Druzhba oil pipeline.

FM Szijjarto said what we have long known regarding the Druzhba oil pipeline has now been proven. (Photo: Anadolu/Dursun Aydemir)

Briefing the cabinet on Monday’s meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council, FM Szijjarto declared that “a new situation has emerged in Brussels,” according to a ministry statement.

“For the first time, it was stated as an expectation that Hungarian troops should also go to Ukraine, and it became clear that the European Commission and the Ukrainians are colluding with regard to blocking oil deliveries through the Druzhba oil pipeline,” he said.

The colleague in Luxembourg, who asked Ukraine’s foreign minister why Hungarian and Slovak experts could not travel to Ukraine to examine the pipeline if there was such a contradiction, received no substantive response. After long seconds of silence and hesitation, Ukraine's foreign minister finally said he would need further consultations on the matter,

– Mr. Szijjarto added.

“So it has essentially been proven what both the Slovaks and we have known from the Ukrainian system operator — namely, that there is no technical, physical, or engineering obstacle to restarting crude oil deliveries through the Druzhba Druzhba oil pipeline,” Mr. Szijjarto underlined.

And when the proposal was raised that Hungarian and Slovak experts should travel to Ukraine, the European Union’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, former Estonian prime minister Kaja Kallas, said instead that Hungarians and Slovaks should send troops to Ukraine. This was the first time that an expectation was openly, clearly, and directly articulated toward us to send soldiers,

– Hungary's foreign minister emphasized.

Cover photo: Szijjarto Peter, minister of foreign affairs and trade (Photo: AFP)