Orbán threatens to stop electricity supplies to Ukraine: Bad things could happen
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is threatening to cut off electricity supplies to Ukraine if oil transit via the Druzhba pipeline is not resumed.
According to Censor.NET, citing Telex, Orbán made this statement at an event with Fidesz party activists.
"Ukrainians want to create chaos in Hungary"
Orbán received several questions from the audience about the Druzhba oil pipeline, which was damaged by the Russians, but the Hungarian government blamed Ukraine for the supply disruptions.
According to Orbán, the Ukrainians' goal is to create economic chaos and an energy emergency in Hungary, as well as to defeat the Fidesz party in the April elections.
"Chaos in the minds of Ukrainians is the path to victory for the opposition in the elections," said the Hungarian prime minister.
"Bad things can happen"
He also did not rule out that if the Ukrainians do not resume transit through the oil pipeline, Hungary will stop supplying electricity to Ukraine.
"If we stop it, bad things could happen... Of course, we make mistakes, but we cannot say that we are rude or brainless. We know exactly how to behave in such a situation, and we will cope with it. Anyone who bites us will have their teeth knocked out," Orban said.
What preceded this?
Recall that Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said that emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine could be cut off if President Volodymyr Zelenskyy does not resume oil supplies by Monday, 23 February.
- On 27 January, Russian occupation forces struck a critical infrastructure facility belonging to the Naftogaz group in western Ukraine. The target of the attack was likely Ukraine's largest oil pumping station, located in Brody, which supplies the southern branch of the Druzhba oil pipeline.
- The prime ministers of Hungary and Slovakia, Viktor Orbán and Robert Fico, accused Ukraine of delaying the restoration of the oil pipeline due to "political motives," and on 18 February, the authorities of these two countries announced the suspension of oil product exports to Ukraine in response to Ukraine's suspension of Russian oil transit.
- In addition, Fico warned that Slovakia would also review its support for Ukraine's European integration and could suspend electricity supplies.
- At the same time, Hungary received permission to import Russian oil via an alternative sea route through Croatia, with further transportation via oil pipeline.
