Zelensky: We hope that a certain person in the EU will not block the 90 billion, if he does, we will give his address to the armed forces

"We hope that a certain person in the EU will not block the 90 billion or the first installment of it, and that Ukrainian soldiers will be able to get their weapons. Otherwise, we will give this person's address to the armed forces, so they can call him and talk to him in their own language," said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, effectively threatening Viktor Orbán at a press conference on Wednesday, according to a report by the Ukrainian news agency Unian. Zelensky said this after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, speaking at the spring event of the Hungarian Chamber of Commerce and Industry's (MKIK), said that they would break the Ukrainian oil blockade by force.

The increasingly heated messaging between the two countries' leaders started after the shutdown of the Friendship oil pipeline at the end of January, which prompted the Hungarian oil giant Mol to request the Hungarian government's approval for releasing Hungary's strategic oil reserves in mid-February. Two days later, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó announced that Hungary would not supply diesel to Ukraine until crude oil deliveries were resumed, and two days after that, he announced that Hungary would do the same with the €90 billion EU loan intended for Ukraine. Last week, the situation escalated further, with the Hungarian government talking about a blockade and

Orbán, fearing Ukrainian attacks, deploying troops to the country's key energy facilities.

The Hungarian PM also wrote an open letter to Zelensky, calling on him to "change his anti-Hungarian policy," while the Ukrainian president said that repairing the oil pipeline couldn't be done quickly. In a radio interview on Friday, Orbán went as far as to say: "they attacked us, they imposed an oil blockade on us," and then claimed, based on satellite images, that the Druzhba oil pipeline could be restarted. Zelensky, however, said on Tuesday that the pipeline had been destroyed and that a ceasefire was needed to repair it. He added that he believes Orbán will suffer defeat in the elections, and then it will be possible to resume normal relations with Hungary.

According to Bloomberg's report on Thursday, Zelensky said that the Friendship oil pipeline could be repaired in a month or a month and a half, but he sees no technical or security rationale for the repair. "I will be frank: I wouldn't repair it. This is my position, and I have shared it with European leaders," said the Ukrainian president, who believes that while the Russians are "killing" Ukrainians, they have to deal with securing Russian oil for "Orbán." Meanwhile, Orbán said that the Hungarian government will force the Ukrainians to restart oil deliveries "by force".

According to Unian, Zelensky then went on to say that if "a certain person" continues to block the €90 billion EU loan, they will hand his address to the armed forces so that they can talk to him in their own language. Zelensky was clearly referring to Orbán – we have sent questions to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry to find out exactly what he meant by this. According to Zelensky, by the way, the issue of the €90 billion loan should be resolved at the EU summit starting on March 19, as it has been announced that the oil pipeline could be restored in a month and a half, but he said he was not sure that this will be enough for the one person who is blocking the loan.

The Ukrainian president believes that the April parliamentary elections and Hungary's veto are related, but they respect the EU and understand its position, which is that Ukraine must indicate the date by which it can repair the pipeline and must do everything in its power to ensure that this happens. "They said they were waiting for the date, and we gave them the date," said the Ukrainian president, who hopes that a favorable decision will be made on March 19.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó was the first to respond to Zelensky's comment. "It goes beyond all boundaries that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has practically threatened Prime Minister Viktor Orbán with death," Szijjártó said on Thursday in Sopron, according to MTI.

Szijjártó added that Hungary cannot be blackmailed. "This is a completely new situation in Europe, where the president of a European country is threatening the prime minister of a NATO and EU member state with murder," he said.