Hungary has given Ukraine three days to restore the transit of Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline or allow a team of inspectors to enter the country to examine the site of the reported damage, a Hungarian energy official said Friday, March 6.
Gábor Czepek, state secretary at Hungary’s Ministry of Energy, said Budapest had formed a group of experts to investigate the situation surrounding the pipeline, which serves as a key route for Hungary’s energy supply, broadcaster RTRS reported.
According to Czepek, Hungary receives about five million tons of oil annually through the Druzhba pipeline.
He said he had sent a letter to Ukraine’s deputy prime minister requesting that Kyiv either restore the pipeline’s operation within three working days or allow inspectors to examine the site of the incident and conduct a technical assessment at the Brody pumping station.
Czepek claimed Ukraine should agree to the request in line with its obligations to the European Union.
Ukrainian authorities had previously said the Brody station was damaged in an attack.
Hungarian sources, however, claim the facility had already been repaired and that the pipeline remained blocked for political reasons.
Oil transit through the Druzhba pipeline was disrupted after Ukraine said infrastructure at the Brody pumping station had been damaged in a Russian attack earlier this year. Kyiv has said the incident affected operations on the route, which carries Russian crude to Central Europe, including Hungary and Slovakia.
On Thursday, days after Budapest’s foreign minister visited Moscow for an in-person meeting with Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin and received two Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs), tensions flared further, with Hungarian PM Viktor Orban saying he would “break the Ukrainian oil blockade by force.”
The same day, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the pipeline could theoretically be made operational within “a month to a month-and-a-half.”
“But that does not mean that everything destroyed will be fully restored,” he added, hinting for the first time that Kyiv may intentionally block the pipeline in the future.
During an interview with state media Ukrinform, Zelensky also escalated the rhetoric by suggesting the Ukrainian military could speak to Orban “in their own language.”
“We hope that one person in the European Union will not block €90 billion [$104 billion], or the first tranche of the €90 billion… Otherwise, we will give the address of this person to our Armed Forces, to our guys. Let them call him and speak with him in their own language,” Zelensky said.
The diplomatic spat also comes ahead of Hungary’s general elections, with the Orban administration – known for its Kremlin ties – relying on a self-described anti-war stance to rally nationalist support, arguing that Europe should avoid backing Kyiv to prevent being drawn into the war.
The latest spat marks the highest level of tension between Budapest and Kyiv since May 2025, when Kyiv announced the breakup of a Hungarian spy ring, prompting the mutual expulsion of diplomats – and the high-profile daylight arrest in Budapest of a former Ukrainian diplomat later revealed to be a Russian national.