Hungary bans Ukraine’s drone commander over strike on Druzhba pipeline
Photo: Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó (Getty Images)
The commander of the Ukrainian military unit that led the attack on the Druzhba oil pipeline has been banned from entering Hungary and the Schengen area, according to Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó.
Szijjártó says that the Druzhba oil pipeline is crucial for Hungary's secure energy supply.
He stresses that without this Russian oil pipeline, it is impossible to supply the country with crude oil.
The Hungarian minister called the latest attack on the pipeline extremely serious — repairs took so long that Hungary almost had to use its strategic or emergency reserves.
The minister notes that the country considers such strikes to be an attack on sovereignty and threatened that no attack will remain without consequences.
He stresses that Hungary and Slovakia, rather than Russia, are the ones suffering the most.
In response, Budapest decides to ban the commander of the Ukrainian military unit involved in the attacks on the oil pipeline from entering its territory. The ban applies not only to Hungary but to the entire Schengen area.
"Anyone who attacks our energy security or sovereignty must expect consequences. Similarly, this time we are banning the commander of the Ukrainian military unit that carried out an extremely serious attack on the Druzhba oil pipeline," Szijjártó says.
He did not name the soldier.
Attack on Druzhba oil pipeline
The Druzhba oil pipeline has been attacked by Ukraine on several occasions.
On the morning of August 18, Hungary temporarily stopped receiving Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline after Ukrainian drones attacked the Nikolskoye oil pumping station in the Tambov region of Russia.
The strike caused a fire at the facility, and the main oil pipeline was completely shut down for almost two days. Oil supplies to Hungary were only resumed late in the evening on August 20.
However, on the evening of August 21, Ukrainian drones again disabled the Druzhba oil pipeline.
As a result, Russian oil supplies to Hungary were halted again, and Szijjártó claimed that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had allegedly used Ukraine's Independence Day to threaten Hungary.
For more details on the purpose of such attacks by Ukraine, see the article by RBC-Ukraine.
