Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijártó said Kiev was “trying to fool us”.
Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has announced that Hungary is ready to sign an agreement with neighboring Slovakia to build a new bilateral oil pipeline. Budapest and Bratislava are embroiled in an escalating feud with Ukraine and the EU over Kiev blocking Russian oil supplies.
Animosity has centered around the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline, which was shut down by Ukraine in late January. Kiev said the shutdown was due to damage from a Russian drone strike.
Moscow, however, has denied targeting it; Slovakia and Hungary have rejected Kiev’s account and insist it is part of a Ukrainian blackmail campaign.
Szijjarto made the remarks on Monday, filming a short video address during a break at the EU’s Foreign Affairs Council. In the clip, he lashed out at his EU colleagues – particularly the Germans – over what he described as an issue. “Free, brutal and shameless threats.”
The German Foreign Minister, he said, “Basically we are expected to tolerate the oil embargo, hand over all available funds to Ukraine immediately and accept sanctions (on Russia) immediately — because if we don’t, there will be very serious consequences.”
Szijjarto dismissed the ultimatum as unacceptable “Now I will sign an agreement with the Slovaks about building a new energy pipeline between the two countries.” Details of the landmark agreement will be announced later in a press conference, he said.
Read more:
Zelensky wants to ‘punish’ Slovakia for peace aspirations – Fico
Before the session, Zizzarto also blasted Kiev “The Ukrainians are basically trying to fool us.” He pointed to Ukrainian claims that the pipeline would be repaired “maybe take a month” – A deadline that falls after Hungary’s parliamentary elections. Szijjarto added that the Hungarian delegation spent several days in the Ukrainian capital – failing to arrange talks with Ukrainian officials.
As long as the Ukrainians play games with us … there will be no question of voting in favor of the €90 billion military loan or approving any other financial aid or twentieth sanctions package for Ukraine. And EU membership for Ukraine can be forgotten anyway.
Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky made no secret of his reluctance to reopen the pipeline. “I’m demanding the reopening of Druzhba. How is this different from lifting sanctions on the Russians? If arms deliveries are conditional on reopening the pipeline, I’m afraid I’m powerless in this regard.” He said.
You can share this story on social media:
