At the start of the conversation, the Prime Minister said that Hungary must ensure Ukraine opens the Friendship oil pipeline.

Once the interview is over, I will begin telephone consultations with the Slovakian Prime Minister immediately to coordinate further joint steps.

"Our ambassador was summoned and all sorts of things were said. But this cannot be considered a serious response.

"Chaos could ensue due to the oil shortage," said Viktor Orbán.

If the Ukrainians don't give us oil, we won't give them with diesel. The second step would have been to cut off their electricity, but we decided to save that as a last resort because there are Hungarians living on the other side of the border. The third step would have been to withhold money if they didn't supply us with oil.

The 20th package of sanctions against Russia will not be finalised. "If the oil doesn't come, we will not support any measures that Ukraine wants," said the prime minister.

So many things to unpack...

• The sanctions package

Orbán threatened to veto virtually each and every sanctions package the EU was throwing at Vladimir Putin, but he eventually signed all of them. The point was not only to weaponise Hungary's voting right but also to demonstrate at home what a stalwart defender of Hungary's interests he is.

• Who said what in Kyiv?

Hungary's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade accused Kyiv of blackmail on Thursday, saying:

Today, our chargé d'affaires in Kyiv was summoned to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, where they admitted that the pipeline is being kept closed and oil deliveries to Hungary are not being restarted for political reasons. They admitted that there are no physical or technical reasons preventing the resumption of deliveries and that the decision is purely political.

Péter Szijjártó did not reveal any further details. 

In other words, the Hungarian Foreign Minister is claiming that the Ukrainians summoned the chargé d'affaires to inform him that the Druzhba oil pipeline would not be reopened for political reasons alone. That seems legit.

Ukrianian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi told journalists later in the day that the ministry summoned Hungary’s chargé d’affaires for the second time in one day following the false claims made by the Hungarian Foreign Minister.

"Since Minister Szijjártó spread false claims and completely distorted the content of the meeting with Hungary’s chargé d’affaires at Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry, the Hungarian diplomat was summoned again to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs," he said.

Tykhyi noted that during the second meeting, which took place just a few hours after the first one, the diplomat was warned about the inadmissibility of misrepresenting the substance of the talks, "with the faint hope that this time Budapest will receive an undistorted message."

He said they gave no signals during the meetings that "the resumption of oil supplies toward Hungary via the Druzhba pipeline had been blocked for political reasons."

He stressed that the subject of the discussion was statements by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán regarding potential threats to Hungary’s critical energy infrastructure.

Tykhyi added that the Hungarian side was informed that Ukraine is ready to provide assistance to Hungary in protecting its facilities.

• Stop supplying Ukraine with electricity

Hungary provides a significant proportion (40–45%) of Ukraine's electricity imports, while Slovakia, Poland and Romania generally provide the remainder. But they trade with all the other neighbouring countries, except Russia and Belarus, of course.

Hungary threatened back in June 2025 that it could possibly stop electricity exports to Ukraine if Russian gas and oil supplies to the EU are blocked. This would be problematic for a number of reasons. Firstly, it would violate European Union regulations. Secondly, it would cause financial losses for Hungarian companies.

If supplies do stop, the European Network of Transmission System Operators for Electricity (ENTSO-E) and the Energy Community Secretariat would need to intervene, pointed out Daria Orlova, an analyst at ExPro Consulting, who thought even then that a complete halt of electricity supplyies from Hungary was unlikely.

Selling electricity at market prices, Hungary makes a pretty penny on these exports.

“For the first five months of 2025, Ukraine imported electricity from Hungary worth €54 million,” the analyst said, adding that, for example, the cost of imports was €16 million in February and €9 million in May, she said.

The Croatians are our friends

'The Croatians are our friends,' Orbán continued. 'It is in our interest to maintain this friendship, not only because many Hungarians go there on holiday, but also because there is a significant Croatian minority living in Hungary.' He emphasised that Hungary is not asking the Croatians for anything, but rather that they fulfil their contractual obligations.

We are asking that when the oil arrives from the Mol tanker, the crude oil be sent to Hungary,

said Orbán.

By way of explanation, he added: 'There is a main pipeline coming from Ukraine. This is another pipeline. There is also a pipeline in Croatian hands which enables us to transport oil to Hungary by sea.

This could be made into a main pipeline. The Croatians now claim that they can transport more, so we will test this.'

Russian oil is $13 cheaper than Western oil. With transportation costs included, the difference rises to $20. Therefore, if Russian oil were to be unavailable, it could lead to price increases and economic chaos, Orbán said. He added that Mol refineries have adapted to Russian oil and would have to be converted.

"The unloading of a crude oil shipment for JANAF's partner MOL Group is currently underway at JANAF's Omišalj Terminal. By early April, a total of seven additional tankers are expected to arrive for the same user of JANAF’s oil pipeline system. All tankers are transporting exclusively crude oil of non-Russian origin," JANAF said in a statement on Wednesday.

Once again, it confirmed to its partners and key stakeholders that it "serves as a guarantor of energy supply security in this part of Europe."

As a strategic energy hub of the European Union and the only secure crude oil supply route for Central Europe, JANAF is

prepared to meet the full annual needs of refineries in Slovakia and Hungary.

Cover photo: MTI Photo/the Prime Minister's Communications Department/Ákos Kaiser