Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Thursday threatened to suspend electricity supplies to neighbouring Ukraine if Kyiv continues to block the transit of Russian oil to Hungary via Ukrainian territory.
“I do not want to threaten or prejudge anything. But Ukraine secures a large part of its electricity from Hungary,” Orbán told Hungarian journalists in Washington.
He demanded that the Ukrainian government cease what he described as attempts to stir unrest in Hungary and acts of “blackmail”, adding that Budapest could consider “retaliatory measures”.
Druzhba pipeline dispute
Since late January, no Russian oil has been delivered to Hungary through the Druzhba pipeline, which crosses Ukrainian territory. The disruption has caused significant strain on both the Hungarian and Slovak economies.
In response, Budapest and Bratislava announced on Wednesday that they were suspending fuel deliveries to Ukraine.
Orbán, who faces what are widely seen as the most difficult parliamentary elections of his current term on 12 April, argues that the government of Volodymyr Zelensky is seeking his defeat by driving up heating costs for Hungarian households and obstructing Russian oil supplies via the pipeline.
Without presenting evidence, he further claimed that the conservative opposition Tisza Party, led by Péter Magyar, is “funded by Ukraine”. He alleged that Kyiv, in coordination with the European Union and Germany, had reached a “secret agreement” aimed at unseating him, which he suggested was concluded at the recent Munich Security Conference.
Electoral pressure and EU tensions
For the first time in 16 years, the right-wing nationalist prime minister faces a serious electoral challenge. Opinion polls over the past 18 months consistently place the Tisza Party eight to ten percentage points ahead of Orbán’s ruling Fidesz in voting intentions.
Orbán has long opposed EU policy regarding the war launched by Russia against Ukraine in 2022, seeking to block European assistance to Kyiv and sanctions against Moscow, while criticising what he describes as a “pro-war” approach in Brussels.
He made the remarks following the inaugural meeting of US President Donald Trump’s so-called “peace council” in Washington, a newly established initiative in which only Hungary and Bulgaria participated among the EU’s 27 member states.
Source: AMNA