Ukraine denies Hungarian minister's claim that Ukraine asked for "money and weapons" in exchange for repairing Druzhba pipeline
Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs has refuted claims by Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó that Hungary's diplomat in Kyiv was promised that Druzhba oil pipeline operations would resume in exchange for "money and weapons".
Source: Heorhii Tykhyi, spokesperson for Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in a comment to journalists, as reported by European Pravda
Details: Hungary's foreign minister posted a video on Facebook in which he claimed that Ukraine's foreign ministry had summoned Hungary's representative for talks.
During the meeting, Ukrainian officials allegedly made it clear that they wanted weapons and money in exchange for resuming oil supplies to Hungary via the Druzhba oil pipeline.
Szijjártó likely meant the €90 billion EU loan for Ukraine, the approval of which Budapest is blocking.
"They acknowledged that there is no physical or technical reason not to resume transportation; there are only political reasons. They also made it clear that they want weapons and money in exchange for resuming transportation of oil to Hungary," Szijjártó said.
The Ukrainian representative said Szijjártó had spread false claims and completely distorted the content of the meeting with Hungary's chargé d'affaires.
That was the reason why the Hungarian diplomat was summoned for talks again. At the second meeting, they were informed that it was unacceptable to misrepresent the content of the conversation.
"At meetings at the Foreign Ministry, there were no signals from the Ukrainian side, in particular, that 'the resumption of oil supplies towards Hungary via the Druzhba oil pipeline is blocked for political reasons'. The subject [of the conversation] was statements made by Prime Minister Orbán about potential threats to Hungary's critical energy infrastructure," Tykhyi explained.
He said Hungary was informed that Ukraine is willing to provide Hungary with assistance to protect its facilities.
Background:
- Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán wrote an open letter to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on 26 February in which he accused him of acting against Hungary's interests.
- On 25 February, Orbán claimed there is a "Ukrainian threat" to Hungary's energy system and announced the deployment of troops to protect the energy infrastructure.
- Hungary has blocked a €90 billion EU loan for Ukraine by refusing to vote in favour of one of the three pieces of legislation approved by the European Parliament that are required to release the funds.
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