The European Commission has condemned Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s apparent threat to use violence against Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán, amid escalating tensions between Budapest and Kyiv over Ukraine’s failure to repair a critical oil pipeline.
“Specifically in relation to the comments made by President Zelenskyy: we are very clear as the European Commission that that type of language is not acceptable,” Commission deputy spokesperson Olof Gill told reporters on Friday. “There must not be threats against EU member states.”
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His comments came after Zelenskyy said yesterday that he would “give the address” of Orbán to Ukrainian soldiers, who will then “call him and speak” to the Moscow-friendly Hungarian premier “in their own language”.
Orbán is blocking a critical €90 billion EU loan to Kyiv over Ukraine’s failure to repair the Druzhba pipeline, which carries Russian oil to Hungary via Ukraine. Zelenskyy has argued that fierce Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure are preventing the pipeline from being quickly repaired.
Orbán, who is trailing in the polls ahead of parliamentary elections on April 12, said on Friday that Zelenskyy “is issuing threats because he wants a pro-Ukraine government in Hungary”.
Slovak leader Robert Fico, whose country is similarly dependent on the Druzhba pipeline and has also threatened to block the loan, urged EU leaders yesterday to “distance themselves” from Zelenskyy’s “outrageous blackmailing statements”.
“If the Ukrainian president continues like this, it may happen that other EU member states will also block the 90-billion loan for Ukraine,” Fico wrote on social media.
Exacerbating the tensions, Hungary said on Friday it had detained seven Ukrainians carrying tens of millions of euros in cash and gold on suspicion of money laundering.
Later on Friday, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó accused the Commission of conspiring with Kyiv to prevent oil deliveries via the Druzhba pipeline, and of collaborating with Croatia to stop Hungary importing Russian energy via the Adriatic Sea.
“This is shameful and outrageous,” Szijjártó wrote on social media. He also posted a letter, co-authored with Slovak Foreign Minister Juraj Blanár, to European Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen, urging Brussels to “ensure that uninterrupted, diversified oil supply routes remain available to our region”.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha condemned the arrests as “state banditism” and said Kyiv reserves “the right to take appropriate action, including initiating sanctions and other restrictive measures”.
“Everyone who is responsible for taking and holding our citizens hostage will be held accountable,” Sybiha wrote in a post on social media.
Gill added on Friday that the Commission’s objective is “to get everyone to calm down a bit [and] dial down the rhetoric”, and that Brussels is undertaking “active discussions with all sides” to resolve the crisis.
See this report by Thomas Moller-Nielsen for Euractiv here.
