Hungary bans Ukrainian commander who led attack on Friendship oil pipeline from entering Hungary and Schengen area

The Hungarian government has banned the commander of the Ukrainian military unit that carried out the latest attack on the Friendship (Druzhba) oil pipeline from Hungary and the Schengen area, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó announced in a video published on Thursday morning.

He justified the ban by arguing that the latest attack on the oil pipeline was so serious and the repairs took so long that Hungary almost had to tap into its emergency reserves. According to Szijjártó, Ukraine is causing more damage to Hungary than to Russia with such attacks on the pipeline. The minister also said that these attacks violate Hungary's sovereignty and as such, cannot be left without consequences.

Although in the video, Szijjártó repeatedly stressed that they view the attack on the pipeline as extremely serious, he had never described the recent Russian missile attack on Mukachevo (a Ukrainian town near the Hungarian border with a significant Hungarian minority) in such terms. The Hungarian government – as opposed to the current announcement – never responded to the attack with any retaliatory measures either.

Péter Szijjártó first called on Ukraine to stop jeopardising Hungary's energy supply and to end its attacks on energy supply routes to Hungary on 13 August. As we later reported, the pipeline had been repaired and oil was flowing again, but then another attack occurred. In response to this, Hungary has since involved Slovakia and the United States in its protest against Ukraine.