Fearing Ukrainian operation, Orbán deploys troops to guard key energy facilities

Members of the Hungarian military will be deployed to areas around key energy facilities throughout the country in order to "increase the protection of critical energy infrastructure," Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced in a video message released after a meeting of the Defense Council on Wednesday.

Orbán said that the meeting needed to be convened because of the "Ukrainian blockade," through which Ukraine is trying to put pressure on Slovakia and Hungary. "I see Ukraine preparing additional steps to disrupt the Hungarian energy system. I have therefore issued an order to strengthen the protection of critical energy infrastructure," the prime minister said in the video, after recalling that no crude oil has been delivered to Hungary from Ukraine via the Druzhba pipeline since January 27.

In addition to military personnel, they will also deploy "equipment necessary for repelling attacks" to these locations. The PM did not specify what kind of attacks he was referring to. The police are also being mobilized to conduct increased patrols around certain power plants, distribution stations, and control centers, and a ban on flying drones will come into effect in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County.

In his video address, the Hungarian Prime Minister made no mention of the fact that the disruption of deliveries on the Druzhba (Friendship) oil pipeline was caused by it having been hit during a Russian bombing near Brody, Ukraine at the end of January. Due to the loss of imports, Mol requested that the government initiate the release of strategic oil reserves at the beginning of last week, which the cabinet approved in the second half of the week. At the same time, the Hungarian government has announced that it would replace Russian oil with seaborne supplies via the Adria pipeline.

Meanwhile, the shutdown led to political squabbling between the Hungarian and Ukrainian governments, with Slovakia also getting involved. Péter Szijjártó, Hungary's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade claims that the Ukrainians are not making enough effort to fix the problem. For this reason, both Slovakia and Hungary halted diesel exports to Ukraine and have repeatedly threatened to do the same with gas and electricity supplies.

Oil deliveries to Slovakia were originally scheduled to resume on February 25, but Ukraine postponed this by one day, until February 26, with the Slovak Ministry of Economy saying that they have received no explanation for the delay. According to the European Commission, the suspension of deliveries via the Druzhba oil pipeline is not politically motivated. Based on the information available to them, repairs to the Ukrainian section of the pipeline have not yet been completed, but work is ongoing, pending the security situation amidst regular Russian attacks.

Due to the shutdown of the pipeline, the Hungarian government blocked the adoption of new EU sanctions against Russia, which was originally planned for Tuesday, the fourth anniversary of the start of the Russian invasion, as well as the €90 billion loan for Ukraine which had been agreed upon by EU heads of state and government in December.