FM Szijjártó: Ukraine taking Hungary for stupid

“The Ukrainians are trying to take us for stupid concerning the Druzhba pipeline halted purely for political reasons, but we are not stupid people, we are Hungarians,” the foreign minister said in Brussels on Monday.

The foreign ministry quoted Péter Szijjártó as saying ahead of a meeting of his EU counterparts that the pipeline’s Ukrainian operator had indicated that fixing the pipeline would take one month. “What will happen in a month’s time? It will be the Monday after the election … if anybody has thought that Ukraine has technical problems, they can now be certain that this whole thing is pure political blackmail,” the minister said.

Szijjártó insisted that the pipeline was “physically and technically ready for restart“.

He also said a tri-lateral meeting with the Slovak and Ukrainian energy ministers had been scheduled for Monday, but “in the end it did not happen”. “The Ukrainian side is not willing to talk, here in Brussels, after a Hungarian delegation … spending three and a half days in Kyiv … they also refused to allow the European Union’s observers to visit the pipeline,” he added.

Hungary has enough fuel reserves for another 86 days, Szijjártó said, adding that “we manage the reserves well and keep fuel prices under control … but everybody should remember how Ukraine behaves towards us.”

The Hungarian government, therefore, will continue to block the EU’s 90 billion euro loan for Ukraine as well as other EU measures, the minister added. “As long as Ukraine plays games with us and won’t restart the oil transit for political reasons, aimed to create an oil supply crisis in Hungary, supporting the 90 billion euro war loan to Ukraine is out of the question,” he said. Hungary will not support financial aid to Ukraine or the 20th package of sanctions, either, he said, adding that “they should forget about joining the EU anyway.”