Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has announced that Hungary will halt gas supplies to Ukraine in response to the blocking of the Druzhba pipeline since 27 January. ‘Hungary’s energy security and protected prices will be maintained,’ Orbán stressed in a video message on 25 March.
According to further clarification by Political Director of the Hungarian Prime Minister Balázs Orbán, the supplies will be gradually halted and the remaining volumes will be stored domestically to strengthen Hungarian reserves. ‘We protect Hungarian families — NOT foreign demands,’ Balázs Orbán underlined in a post on X.
The Druzhba pipeline, which supplies both Hungary and Slovakia with Russian oil, has been blocked since 27 January, threatening the energy security of the two EU member states. The Hungarian government has presented satellite images which it says prove the pipeline is functional and recently sent an investigation committee to Ukraine—however, Kyiv has not allowed them access to the site.
A similar situation reportedly occurred when European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa requested to visit the damaged section but were also denied permission.
Hungary and Slovakia, in response to what Hungarian government officials describe as an ‘oil blockade’, halted diesel exports to Ukraine in February, while Budapest also moved to block the 20th EU sanctions package against Russia at the Foreign Affairs Council.
The move comes amid an unprecedentedly volatile political atmosphere both in Hungary and at the European level. As the country prepares for a high-stakes election scheduled for 12 April, a multi-layered intelligence and information war appears to be unfolding: the Hungarian opposition, together with Western media outlets and certain European intelligence services, accuse Orbán’s government of cooperating with Russian intelligence to influence the outcome of the election and of leaking confidential EU material to Moscow.
While rejecting these claims, the Hungarian government alleges that the opposition Tisza party is coordinating with the EU and Ukraine to remove the current administration and install a more pro-European and pro-Ukraine leadership in Hungary.
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