Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban called Ukraine’s attempts to cut off his country’s access to Russian oil an “oil blockade” and assured that it would not succeed. He also confirmed that Budapest will not allow Brussels to provide aid to Kiev until the Ukrainian authorities restore the transit of oil through the “Druzhba” pipeline.
„We will not help Ukraine with the oil blockade; we will lift it.Brussels and Kiev can be sure of this, the prime minister wrote on Facebook.
He noted that “The Ukrainians know very well what they are doing“. “They want a fuel shortage in Hungary and a jump in the price of gasoline to 1,000 forints (over 2.50 EUR) a few weeks before the elections. They are doing this to overthrow our government and replace it with their own protégé, loyal to Kiev“, Orbán explained.
“This will not work. We have replenished our reserves and saved the country from a fuel shortage. We have stopped the EU military loan to Ukraine of 90 billion EUR and we will not vote on any decisions in Brussels in favor of Ukraine until President Zelensky comes to his senses“, the prime minister assured.
According to Hungarian data, oil has not flowed through the “Družba“ pipeline since January 27. On February 15, Hungary and Slovakia asked Croatia to allow the transit of Russian crude oil through the Adriatic pipeline. It is expected to be delivered to the Croatian port of Omišalj by sea. The Hungarian government also decided to provide MOL with 250,000 tons of oil from its strategic reserves for its refineries. These reserves are enough for three months.