Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán posted today on Facebook, “Ukraine has been blocking the operation of the Soviet-era [Druzhba] oil pipeline for 30 days. As long as Ukraine does not provide oil, it will not receive gas from Hungary.” This is not insignificant for Ukraine. As TASS reported, “According to the Gas Transmission System Operator of Ukraine, in 2025 Ukraine purchased about 46% of all its imported gas from Hungary. These supplies covered 20-30% of its monthly gas needs.”
Orbán added that the gas that would have been sent to Ukraine will instead be stored in Hungarian facilities, saying that the move is necessary considering that Ukraine “is also attacking the southern gas pipeline that supplies Hungary,” referring to the TurkStream route that brings Russian gas to Hungary via Türkiye and the Balkans. “We will defend Hungary’s energy security, the protected petrol price, and the reduced gas prices.”
Orbán’s action today came after various shenanigans last week. The EU wants Ukraine to continue its proxy role against Russia, but its 90 billion euro support package for Ukraine has been held up by Hungary, due to Ukraine’s cutoff of Russian oil to Hungary. Since late January, Kiev has claimed that damage to the Druzhba pipeline didn’t allow the oil to go to Hungary. However, on March 15, Ukraine’s acting president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, having denied everyone, including the EU, any examination of Kiev’s claim that the pipeline was damaged, took a new tack. He tried to shame the EU, telling them that making him reopen the Druzhba pipeline was the same as lifting sanctions on Russia. “I told our friends from Europe that this is called blackmail.”
