Hungary’s top diplomat stokes anger at anti-Ukraine protest with allegation of election meddling

BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary ’s pro-Russian foreign minister Friday accused neighboring Ukraine of seeking to interfere in upcoming Hungarian elections in which Prime Minister Viktor Orbán faces an unprecedented challenge.

Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó made the accusation in a speech to several hundred protesters outside Ukraine’s embassy in Budapest. The demonstration, organized by a shadowy pro-government organization with ties to Orbán's Fidesz party, came the same day that Hungary detained seven Ukrainian state-owned bank employees and seized two armored cars carrying some $80 million in cash. Kyiv decried the move as illegal hostage taking.

Speaking at the protest, Szijjártó made a slew of unsubstantiated allegations, including that Ukraine had been coordinating with the European Union and Orbán's opposition to block Russian oil shipments to Hungary across the Druzhba pipeline.

Demonstrators shouted angrily when Szijjártó accused Ukraine of seeking to influence Hungary’s April elections in order to bring in a government that would make decisions more favorable to Kyiv.

“This is something that will not happen in Hungary. There will be no pro-Ukraine government, and Hungary will not have a pro-Ukraine prime minister," Szijjártó said.

“Ukraine is fighting for itself, not for us and not in place of us, so we owe absolutely nothing to Ukraine,” he said.

The demonstration, in which other ruling party politicians also spoke, came against a backdrop of rising tensions between Hungary and Ukraine, who are embroiled in a bitter feud over Hungary’s access to Russian oil through a pipeline that crosses Ukrainian territory.

Oil shipments through the Druzhba pipeline have been interrupted since Jan. 27. Ukraine says a Russian drone strike damaged the pipeline’s infrastructure, and that repairing it carried risks to technicians. It said that even if restored, it would remain vulnerable to further Russian attacks.

Hungary’s government has accused Ukraine of deliberately holding up supplies of Russian crude, and has vowed to take strong countermeasures against Kyiv until oil flows resume.

Orbán, who has maintained close relations with the Kremlin while escalating an aggressive anti-Ukraine campaign ahead of the election next month, has called Ukraine Hungary’s “enemy,” and accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of seeking to provoke an energy crisis in order to sway the April 12 vote.

The Hungarian leader previously ceased diesel shipments to Ukraine, vetoed a new round of EU sanctions against Russia and blocked a major, 90-billion-euro ($106-billion) loan for Kyiv in retaliation for the interruption in oil shipments. He’s also deployed military forces to key energy infrastructure sites across Hungary, accusing Ukraine of plotting disruptions.

Trailing in most polls behind a popular center-right challenger, the populist Orbán has staked the election on convincing voters that Ukraine poses an existential threat to Hungary’s security.

In office since 2010, the EU’s longest-serving leader has claimed that if he loses the election, the EU will force Hungary into bankruptcy by cutting Russian energy imports, and that Hungarian youth will be sent to their deaths on the front lines in Ukraine.

Szijjárto, the Hungarian foreign minister, traveled to Moscow on Wednesday for a cordial meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, where he sought guarantees from Russian authorities that Hungary would continue to have access to Russian oil and gas despite disruptions caused by the war in the Middle East and interruptions to Druzhba flows.

On Friday, he said Ukraine had placed Hungary under an “oil blockade” meant to assist Orbán's challenger before the vote.

“They know precisely that if there is a crisis in Hungary’s oil supply ... it is bad for the government,” he said.