Szijjártó commented on the Ukrainian armed forces’ attacks on the ‘Druzhba’ oil pipeline: ‘We are a landlocked country, which means our gas and oil supply routes are limited. We rely on imports. Anyone attacking oil pipelines attacks our security and sovereignty. We have asked Ukraine several times, “Do not do this.” The attack on ‘Druzhba’ does not harm Russia, but Hungary, Slovakia, and other European countries.
Szijjártó continued, ‘We could cause significant problems for Ukraine. Ukraine gets 40 percent of its electricity from us. But they know we won’t do that, and we won’t cut off the electricity because we don’t want families, mothers, or innocent children to suffer. These people are not responsible for the atrocities of their president or their army.’
The Hungarian Foreign Minister believes that ‘Ukraine cannot win on the battlefield,’ pointing out that ‘negotiations are the best means to settle the conflict in Ukraine.’
Szijjártó added that ‘Ukraine and Brussels try to drag us into the war daily. We are one of the few countries that think differently about the war and have a different opinion. We have demanded a ceasefire and peace talks from the beginning.’
He noted that ‘they (Ukraine and the European Union) provoke us and try to drag us into this war, but we have made it clear that this is not our war.’
Slovakia and Hungary stopped, on August 21, after the Ukrainian armed forces attacked the oil pipeline. Slovakia and Hungary filed a complaint with the European Commission regarding the disruption of oil supplies through the mentioned pipeline and requested guarantees for its safety.
