Hungary will ban the commander of a Ukrainian military unit involved in the recent attack on the Druzhba oil pipeline from entering both the country and the broader Schengen Area, the Hungarian Foreign Minister said.
Peter Szijjártó wrote on X: “In response to the latest Ukrainian strike against the Druzhba oil pipeline, the Hungarian government has decided to ban the commander of the military unit responsible from entering Hungary and the entire Schengen Area.”
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“This was an attack on Hungary’s sovereignty, endangering our energy security and nearly forcing the use of our strategic reserves,” Szijjártó continued, adding “anyone who attacks our energy security and sovereignty must expect consequences.”
Ukraine has carried out at least three strikes on the 2,500-mile Soviet-era Druzhba oil pipeline, which delivers Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia, in recent weeks.
Szijjártó did not confirm which Ukrainian commander was affected by the ban, but Balázs Orbán, the Hungarian Prime Minister’s Political Director, told Hungarian outlet 444 that it concerns Robert Brovdi.
Brovdi had announced in a previous video published on social media that Ukrainian drones hit the Unecha oil pumping station in Russia’s Bryansk region on Aug. 21.
Brovdi, who is of Hungarian descent and is better known by his military call sign Maydar, responded on Thursday, accusing Hungary of being “elbow-deep in Ukrainian blood” and instructing Hungary’s leadership to “shove your sanctions up your ass, Mr. ‘dancer on bones.’”
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Brovdi added: “By supporting the ‘Druzhba’ oil pipeline, you are not defending Hungary’s sovereignty, but rather your own dirty pockets, filled with cheap sanctioned raw materials. By buying it, you become complicit in the multiplication of bloody money, which returns in the form of missiles and Shaheds striking peaceful cities in Ukraine, and just today, Aug. 28, 2025, killed dozens of Ukrainians in Kyiv. Your hands are elbow-deep in Ukrainian blood. And we will remember that.”
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said that Hungary is on “the wrong side of history” and added that Kyiv would take “mirror action.”
On Monday, Aug. 24, President Volodymyr Zelensky hinted that recent strikes to the pipeline may have been tied to Hungary’s refusal to allow Ukraine’s accession to the European Union.
Under its president, Viktor Orban, Hungary, which maintains close ties to Moscow, has repeatedly vetoed Russia sanctions as well as voted to block EU accession talks, though US President Donald Trump reportedly phoned Orban following a White House summit with Kyiv and EU leaders to discuss why it has done so.
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha hit back after Szijjártó wrote on Twitter that Zelensky had “used Ukraine’s national holiday to threaten Hungary” and said “we call on [Zelensky] to stop threatening Hungary and to end the reckless attacks on our energy security!”
Sybiha wrote on Twitter that he would “reply in a Hungarian manner,” warning, “you don’t need to tell the Ukrainian President what to do or say, and when. He is the President of Ukraine, not Hungary.”
“Hungary’s energy security is in your own hands. Diversify and become independent from Russia, like the rest of Europe,” Sybiha added.
On Tuesday, Aug.26, Szijjártó warned that Hungary may reconsider electricity supplies to Ukraine after its drone attacks on the “Druzhba” oil pipeline, accusing Kyiv of “open anti-Hungarian policy.”
According to him, Hungary provides 30-40% of Ukraine’s electricity imports, and he remarked that cutting them off “will affect not the government, not the prime minister, not the ministers, but the people, families, and children living in this country.”
Earlier this week, it was also reported by Euronews that Hungary had sued the European Union over a decision to grant billions of euros of aid to Ukraine from frozen Russian assets.
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