Ukraine and Hungary’s Foreign Ministers Clash Over Druzhba Pipeline Strikes

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha and his Hungarian counterpart Péter Szijjártó exchanged sharp words after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s Independence Day comments and recent Ukrainian drone attacks on the Druzhba oil pipeline.

The Gaze reports this, referring to European Pravda.

Speaking to reporters on August 24, Zelenskyy played on the word “druzhba” (“friendship”), stressing that Kyiv had always valued friendly relations with Budapest, but now the future of the Druzhba pipeline depended on Hungary’s stance.

Szijjártó accused the Ukrainian president of using a national holiday to issue threats, saying Hungary would not tolerate intimidation. 

He argued that Ukrainian strikes on oil infrastructure amounted to direct assaults on Hungary’s energy security and, by extension, its sovereignty. 

“A war to which Hungary has no connection can never justify violations of our sovereignty,” he wrote on the social platform X, urging Zelenskyy to halt “reckless attacks” on Hungary.

Sybiha swiftly fired back, insisting that Budapest had no right to lecture Ukraine’s leader. “I will reply in a Hungarian manner. You don’t need to tell the Ukrainian President what to do or say, and when. He is the President of Ukraine, not Hungary,” Sybiha posted on X. 

He added that Hungary’s energy security lay in its own hands and urged the Orbán government to diversify its supplies and reduce dependence on Russian energy, as other European states have done.

As The Gaze previously reported, unmanned forces commanded by Robert Brovdi, known by his call sign “Madyar,” struck the Druzhba pipeline’s pumping station for the second time within a week. 

Until now, Kyiv had largely avoided targeting the Soviet-era pipeline in order to preserve already fragile relations with Budapest.