Vance: Ukrainians are making Hungarian people suffer in attempt to influence elections

US Vice President JD Vance has claimed that Ukraine cut off oil flows through the Druzhba pipeline to Hungary in an attempt to influence Hungarian elections, thereby "causing suffering" to the Hungarian people.

Source: The Guardian, as reported by European Pravda

Details: At one of the events during Vance's visit to Hungary, a moderator asked the US politician about his earlier remarks alleging that Ukrainian intelligence services are trying to influence elections in the United States or Hungary.

Vance referred to recent controversial comments by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who had said he would pass the address of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to Ukrainian soldiers. The vice president described Zelenskyy's remarks as "completely scandalous" and "preposterous".

He then turned to what he described as foreign interference in Hungary's elections.

Quote: "I've also been told that the vice-president of the United States coming and saying that Viktor Orbán is doing a good job and is a helpful statesman to the cause of peace, that's foreign influence.

But what's not foreign influence is when the European Union threatens billions of dollars withheld from Hungary because you guys protect your borders; that's apparently not foreign influence.

What's not foreign influence is when the Ukrainians shut down pipelines, causing suffering among the Hungarian people in an effort to influence an election that's allegedly not foreign influence."

Details: Vance added that the US had "never threatened Hungary, saying, if you don't vote for Viktor Orbán, you are not going to get this and that".

Quote: "We would never do that because we respect the Hungarian people enough to respect their sovereignty. The fact that so many foreign actors, whether they're transnational organisations like the bureaucrats in Brussels or whether it's foreign governments, are literally threatening the Hungarian people [to] vote this way or we're going to exact our revenge on you – that should make you very angry."

Details: Vance reiterated his support for Orbán, saying that protecting Hungary's sovereignty requires that "the Hungarian people … reject these foreign influence operations, vote for who they want to be their leader, reject the Brussels bureaucrats".

Background: Earlier, the US vice president said he had arrived in Budapest because "interference from Brussels" in Hungary's elections was outrageous.

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