Putin hosts Hungary’s foreign minister for energy supply talks as war in the Middle East creates disruptions

Russian President Vladimir Putin hosted Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijarto for talks in Moscow on Wednesday, with oil and gas supplies high on the agenda as Hungary maintains its reliance on Russian fossil fuels despite the war in Ukraine.

Szijjarto said on Wednesday that he had gone to Moscow to seek assurances from Russian officials that Hungary would continue to have access to Russian oil and gas amid disruptions caused by the war in the Middle East and the flow of Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline.

The Hungarian government recently accused Kyiv of deliberately blocking Russian oil deliveries through a pipeline that crosses Ukraine’s territory. Ukrainian officials have denied the allegations, saying a pipeline supplying refineries in Hungary and Slovakia was hit in a Russian drone strike.

Russian officials “have always fulfilled all our obligations and we intend and are ready to do so,” Putin assured Szijjarto during the meeting.

“I understand that this concerns you, especially the supply of oil. We look at what is happening in the global and European gas markets. We are happy to discuss all these issues,” Putin said.

“Not everything is in our power,” he said.

In turn, the Russian president “is well aware that Ukraine has been blocking oil shipments to Hungary on the Druzhba oil pipeline for weeks, only for political reasons and based on a political decision.”

He said he would come to Moscow to ensure Hungary’s continued access to Russian fossil fuels at “unchanged prices” despite disruptions to pipeline deliveries and soaring fuel prices in the wake of war in the Middle East.

Putin announced that Russia is freeing two ethnic Hungarian prisoners of war who fought in the Ukrainian armed forces. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán asked him in a phone call on Tuesday to consider releasing him and “bring him home on the same plane that brought you here and you will go back to Budapest,” Putin said.

Szijjártó thanked him in Russian. The minister has previously accused members of the roughly 75,000-strong community of ethnic Hungarians living in the western Ukrainian region of Zakarpattia to be forcibly recruited. Many of that minority group hold dual Hungarian and Ukrainian citizenship, and two POWs were released, according to Putin.

The deal to release two ethnic Hungarian prisoners of war comes as Orban steps up an aggressive anti-Ukraine campaign ahead of tough elections next month.

Orban, trailing in most polls to a center-right challenger who has promised to restore Hungary’s Western alliances and end its dependence on Russian power, has fueled baseless accusations that Kyiv and the European Union are trying to bankrupt Hungary by forcing them to help Ukraine financially.

He has tried to convince voters that if his party loses the election, his opponent will send Hungarian youth to die on the front lines of the war.

Last week, Hungary imposed a new package of EU sanctions on Russia in response to disruptions in Russian oil supplies passing through Ukraine and vowed to freeze a major, 90-billion-euro ($106 billion) EU loan destined for Kyiv until oil flows resume.

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Justin Spike contributed to this report from Budapest, Hungary.