Ukraine says Szijjártó lied about their conversation with Hungarian Chargé d'Affaires in Kyiv

According to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, Péter Szijjártó's claims about the conversation between the summoned chargé d'affaires of the Hungarian embassy in Kyiv and the Ukrainians are untrue, the Ukrainian Pravda writes.

Earlier that day, the Hungarian Foreign Minister claimed that the Ukrainians had summoned the chargé d'affaires of the Hungarian embassy in Kyiv, and "admitted that it is for political reasons that they are not resuming oil deliveries to Hungary. He also said that they admitted that there were no physical or technical reasons for not resuming deliveries [...] and made it clear that they want weapons and money in exchange for resuming oil deliveries to Hungary."

According to the Ukrainians, they did not indicate at the meeting that oil shipments to Hungary via the Druzhba pipeline were not being resumed for political reasons, but instead, they discussed Viktor Orbán's Wednesday statement that he believes Ukraine is preparing operations to disrupt the Hungarian energy system and is therefore deploying soldiers to key energy facilities. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry says they offered to help Hungary protect these facilities.

The spokesperson for the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said that Szijjártó lied to the Hungarian public about what was said at the meeting, which is why the Chargé d'Affaires was summoned a second time: to tell him that it was not acceptable to publicly lie about the content of the conversation.

The Hungarian Foreign Minister, however, reported differently about the second meeting: "One summons per day is not enough for the Ukrainians; they summoned our Chargé d'Affaires in Kyiv to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry for a second time this evening, he announced in a video message late Thursday. According to Szijjártó, the same things were said the second time around as during the first conversation.

The background to all of this is that one of the facilities attached to the Friendship oil pipeline near Brody, Ukraine, was hit by a Russian bomb at the end of January. As a result, no oil has been delivered to Hungary and Slovakia via the pipeline since January 27. The Hungarian and Slovak governments claim that the pipeline system running from Russia through Ukraine to Hungary and Slovakia is already ready for transit, but the Ukrainian leadership is not allowing this to happen for political reasons. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has noted that it was Russia that damaged the pipeline and that carrying out repairs puts Ukrainian workers at risk of further attacks, while there is an alternative route through Croatia.

Earlier in the week, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán wrote a letter to European Council President Antonio Costa, informing him that until deliveries towards Hungary are resumed, he cannot support any decision that would benefit Ukraine. This includes the loan to Ukraine agreed upon in December by the European Council. At the time, the Hungarian Prime Minister and his 26 fellow leaders unanimously agreed on a €90 billion loan for Ukraine, with the understanding that it would have no financial impact on three member states, including Hungary.

Meanwhile, the first shipments of non-Russian crude oil began to arrive at the Adria pipeline in Croatia, which, according to Szijjártó, means that Hungary's energy supply is secure.