The Goal Is to Create an Oil Supply Emergency in Hungary Ahead of the Elections

According to Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, Ukraine is keeping the Druzhba oil pipeline shut for political reasons in order to exert pressure on Hungary. The minister said the leadership in Kyiv has provided no explanation for the halted deliveries, but Budapest has made it clear it will continue to block key European Union decisions important to Ukraine until oil shipments resume.

Peter Szijjarto, Hungary's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Photo: MTI)

“When you think the day is over, it turns out it’s not. That’s not the case. It wasn’t enough for the Ukrainians to summon our chargé d’affaires in Kyiv once in a single day. In the evening, he was summoned again to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry,” Hungary's Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in his latest post.

Ukraine was outraged that we had made public the results of the first meeting, namely that the Ukrainians had admitted that they would not resume oil deliveries to Hungary solely for political reasons, said Peter Szijjarto, Hungary's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade. (Photo: MTI/KKM)

“They were outraged that we made public the results of the first summons—that the Ukrainians admitted they are not resuming oil shipments to Hungary solely for political reasons,” Szijjarto said.

“It is difficult to interpret it any other way when they say there will be no restart until Hungary sends money and weapons. We will send neither money nor weapons, because we do not want Ukraine to drag Hungary into its war. We will preserve the peace and security of Hungary and the Hungarian people at all costs,” he added. Szijjarto said the second summons once again confirmed Ukraine’s political motives.

My second summons just minutes ago once again proved that the Ukrainians are not restarting oil deliveries solely for political reasons. Once again, they gave no explanation, and once again, they provided no timeline,

he said. “It is therefore completely clear that they want to create an oil supply emergency in Hungary ahead of the elections. But we will not allow this. We will not allow them to toy with us, and we will not allow ourselves to be blackmailed. Until oil deliveries to Hungary resume, Hungary will block decisions important to Ukraine,” the foreign minister concluded.

Cover photo: Peter Szijjarto, Hungary's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade (Photo: MTI)