President Donald Trump condemned Ukraine’s recent strikes on a Russian oil pipeline supplying Hungary and Slovakia in a personal note shared on Friday by a Hungarian lawmaker.
“Viktor—I do not like hearing this,” Trump wrote in a note shared by European Parliament member Andras Lazlos. “I am very angry about it. Tell Slovakia. You are my great friend.”
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Earlier this month, Budapest accused Ukraine of carrying out drone strikes targeting the Druzhba oil pipeline, one of Europe’s most important energy corridors. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán sent a message to Trump complaining about the strikes, arguing that criticism about his country’s reliance on Russia is unfair, according to Laszlo, a member of Orbán’s ruling Fidesz party, and contending that Kyiv’s move to disrupt the oil supply of countries reliant on Russian energy disregards the support Budapest has provided to Ukraine in its fight against Moscow.
The Hungarian leader’s message to Trump argues in part that the Druzhba pipeline “supplies Hungary and Slovakia, two countries that have no other means of importing crude oil.” Russian crude oil flows to Hungary and Slovakia via the Druzhba pipeline were completely halted on Monday, officials in Hungary and Slovakia said, following last week’s drone strikes.
“Hungary supports Ukraine with electricity and petrol, in return they bomb pipeline that supply us,” Orbán said. “Very unfriendly move!”
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto made similar arguments, combating the drone strikes after they were initially conducted.
“Hungary is Ukraine’s number one electricity supplier. Without us, the country’s energy security would be highly unstable,” he said on Aug. 13.
“Given this, the Ukrainian attack on the Druzhba pipeline, which supplies Hungary with oil and is vital to our energy security, is outrageous,” he continued. “We firmly call on Ukraine to stop endangering Hungary’s energy supply and to stop attacks on energy supply routes leading to Hungary in a war we Hungarians have nothing to do with!”
Szijjarto has also argued that the attacks are part of broader efforts to draw Hungary into the Russia-Ukraine war.
“For 3.5 years, Brussels [the European Union] and Kyiv have tried to drag Hungary into the war in Ukraine,” he said on Aug. 18. “These repeated Ukrainian attacks on our energy supply serve that same purpose….This is not our war. We have nothing to do with it, and as long as we are in charge, Hungary will stay out of it.”
Ukraine, also accused by Germany of carrying out a massive sabotage operation blowing up the Nord Stream oil pipelines, has argued strikes are aimed at infrastructure supporting Russia’s military effort and represent a legitimate wartime target.
“Hungary has been told for years that Moscow is an unreliable partner,” Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said in a post to X. “Despite this, Hungary has made every effort to maintain its reliance on Russia. Even after the full-scale war began. You can now send your complaints—and threats—to your friends in Moscow.”
BESSENT PRESSES EUROPE TO ALIGN WITH TRUMP’S TARIFF STRATEGY TO END UKRAINE WAR
Trump is attempting to end the Ukraine war altogether, hosting a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week in Alaska in talks that led to a subsequent meeting with Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The White House hopes Zelensky and Putin will now sit down for a meeting, and has raised speculation that a trilateral meeting between Russia, Ukraine, and the U.S. could follow, possibly ending the war with a sweeping peace deal.
Still, the future of the Ukraine war remains uncertain, as Putin has yet to formally agree to a meeting with Zelensky.