By Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Europe Bureau Chief, reporting from Budapest, Hungary
BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Hungary reacted angrily after Ukraine struck a key pumping station on the Druzhba pipeline, cutting Russian oil supplies to Hungary and Slovakia, the only EU countries still receiving Russian crude.
The governments of Hungary and Slovakia warned the European Commission that supplies could be halted for at least five days. “The physical and geographical reality is that without this pipeline, the safe supply of our countries is simply not possible,” their foreign ministers, Péter Szijjártó and Juraj Blanár, wrote in a letter.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Szijjártó said on the social media platform Facebook that the pipeline had been attacked “for the third time in a short time.” He called the strike “another attack on the energy security of our country. Another attempt to drag us into war.”
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in July 2024, has refused to join EU partners in giving Kyiv political, economic, or military support. On Facebook, Orbán condemned the strike, writing in English: “Hungary supports Ukraine with electricity and petrol; in return, they bomb the pipeline that supplies us. Very unfriendly move! We wish President Trump every success in his pursuit of peace!”
Orbán’s Fidesz party also published a handwritten message apparently from U.S. President Donald J. Trump: “Viktor – I do not like hearing this – I am very angry about it. Tell Slovakia. You are my great friend, Donald.”
While 25 EU member states halted Russian oil imports after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Hungary and Slovakia remain reliant on the Soviet-era Druzhba, or “Friendship”, pipeline, arguing that Russian energy is vital for their economies.
BIGGEST U.S. INVESTMENT
The war also came closer to Hungary in other ways this week as Russian missiles struck a U.S.-owned Flex electronics factory in Mukachevo, just 30 kilometers (about 19 miles) from the Hungarian border, in Ukraine’s Zakarpattia region.
Andy Hunder, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine, called it one of the “biggest American investments in Ukraine.” At the time of the attack, 600 night-shift workers were inside, and six were injured, Hunder said.
He added that more than half of the chamber’s roughly 600 members have had property damaged by Russian strikes. “The message is clear: Russia is not looking for peace. Russia is attacking American business in Ukraine, humiliating American business.”
The strike has alarmed Budapest, as Zakarpattia is home to a significant ethnic Hungarian minority—estimated at around 150,000 people, or about 12 percent of the region’s population. Hungarian officials have long warned that an escalation in the area could endanger this community.
In Lviv, a Russian strike killed one person and injured three, damaging 26 residential buildings, a kindergarten, and administrative offices, regional head Maksym Kozytskyi said on the Telegram platform.
The regional prosecutor’s office added that three Russian cruise missiles with cluster munitions struck the city.
ANGER OVER NAVALNY’S DEATH
With Ukraine facing major attacks, including in areas where many ethnic Hungarians live, protesters gathered near the Russian embassy in Budapest this month.
Police kept them back as they rallied at a makeshift memorial for Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died on February 16, 2024, in an Arctic penal colony.
Russian authorities said Navalny, 47, collapsed during a walk and could not be revived, but his supporters and Western leaders accused the Kremlin of murder. His death triggered global condemnation.
At the Budapest memorial, flowers and candles adorned signs criticizing Orbán’s ties to Moscow. One placard read: “Viktor KGB,” referencing the Prime Minister’s perceived cozy relationship with the Kremlin, Worthy News witnessed.
Opposition leader Péter Magyar, head of the Tisza Party, has accused Russia of meddling in Hungarian politics.
He said, “The Russian Foreign Intelligence Service is interfering in Hungary,” after the agency claimed recently that the European Commission was considering “regime change” in Budapest.
Orbán, in power since 2010, has been criticized by fellow EU leaders for his warm ties with Moscow and opposition to military aid for Ukraine. With Magyar’s center-right Tisza Party leading Fidesz in polls, analysts say the 2026 parliamentary election could pose the toughest challenge yet to Orbán’s long rule.
Copyright 1999-2026 Worthy News. This article was originally published on Worthy News and was reproduced with permission.
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