Hungary politicizes Druzhba pipeline repairs, Kyiv says

Nation

20 March, 02:33 AM

Hungary is politicizing the question of repairs to the Druzhba oil pipeline, using it as a pretext to sabotage EU–Ukraine relations, the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said on March 19.

Ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi said at a briefing that Kyiv has not heard any condemnation from Budapest for the damage to the pipeline caused by a Russian attack in January.

Instead of explaining to Hungarians why the country failed to diversify its energy supplies, Prime Minister Viktor Orban has focused his aggressive rhetoric on Ukraine, Tykhyi said.

"Thus, Hungary is politicizing this issue, turning it into a political pretext and making demands of Ukraine, which we consider absurd; Ukraine is facing large-scale terror — aerial terror — from Russia," he said.

Tykhyi noted that Ukraine’s infrastructure is damaged every day by Russian attacks. After the strike on the Druzhba pipeline, other Ukrainian pipelines and infrastructure, including the Odesa-Brody pipeline, were also hit, he said.

"Ukraine is repairing all of it. But we do not have unlimited resources. We are in a state of full-scale war, which Hungary, for some reason, prefers to ignore," Tykhyi added.

The Druzhba pipeline has been inactive since a January Russian attack on western Ukraine which damaged some of its pumping and storage infrastructure. Hungary and Slovakia (both have EU waivers to keep importing Russian crude) dispute Ukraine’s assessment of the extent of the damage and the timeline for repairs, eager to see the deliveries of oil resume as soon as possible.

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