Ukraine strikes key oil pipeline to EU – Hungary

Russian oil supply to Hungary has been halted after Ukraine targeted the key Druzhba pipeline system, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on Monday.

Moscow has informed Budapest that Russian experts are working to restore an "essential” transformer station damaged by a Ukrainnian strike, Szijjarto added.

Druzhba is one of the world’s longest networks, transporting crude some 4,000km from Russia and Kazakhstan to refineries in the Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia.

Szijjarto wrote in a post on X on Monday that “this latest strike against our energy security is outrageous and unacceptable.”

It is not yet clear when deliveries of oil through the pipeline could resume, he added.

The diplomat reiterated that the Ukraine conflict is “not our war” and that “as long as we [Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government] are in charge, Hungary will stay out of it.”

Unlike most other EU capitals, which supported Kiev after the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022, Budapest took a neutral stance and refused to supply weapons to the government of Vladimir Zelensky. It also consistently called for peace and criticized Western sanctions against Russia as ineffective and more harmful to those who impose them.

Ukraine has repeatedly targeted Russian energy infrastructure throughout the conflict, including the Druzhba system and the TurkStream pipeline, which supplies natural gas to Turkish customers and several European countries, including Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Greece.

The previous attack on Druzhba occurred last Wednesday, with Kiev confirming that it had sent drones to strike a key distribution station in Bryansk Region, western Russia.

Moscow has condemned Ukrainian attacks on civilian energy infrastructure many times as acts of terrorism.