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Viktor Orb\u00e1n\u2019s core complaint remains the halt of Russian oil flowing through the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline, which Budapest believes Kyiv has deliberately shut off. | Attila Kisbenedek\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n\u201cSpecifically 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. There must not be threats against EU member states,\u201d Commission deputy chief spokesperson Olof Gill told reporters Friday, in a rare condemnation of the leader in Kyiv. <\/p>\n
Tensions between Ukraine and Hungary have escalated in recent weeks as Budapest continues to veto a \u20ac90 billion loan package for Kyiv. Orb\u00e1n\u2019s core complaint\u00a0remains\u00a0the halt of Russian oil flowing through the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline, which Budapest believes Kyiv has deliberately shut off. Ukraine denies Orb\u00e1n\u2019s allegation, saying the pipe was severely damaged by a Russian drone attack in January.<\/p>\n
Viktor Orb\u00e1n\u2019s core complaint remains the halt of Russian oil flowing through the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline, which Budapest believes Kyiv has deliberately shut off. | Attila Kisbenedek\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n
Ukraine on Friday accused Hungary of kidnapping<\/a> seven employees of the state-owned Oschadbank and seizing millions in cash and gold, while Orb\u00e1n had\u00a0vowed on social media<\/a>\u00a0Thursday to \u201cbreak the Ukrainian oil blockade by force.\u201d<\/p>\n After his emotional outburst on Thursday, Zelenskyy said he was ready to repair and restart the pipeline in a month if the EU officially requests it and promises Orb\u00e1n will unblock the \u20ac90 billion loan.<\/p>\n Ukraine is expected to run short of funds by the end of March as it resists Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion, and EU leaders have pledged to cover Kyiv\u2019s financial needs for the next two years \u2014 a pressure point the Commission sees as partly explaining Zelenskyy\u2019s anxiety over the veto and potentially prompting his remarks.<\/p>\n Speaking from the podium in the Commission\u2019s Brussels headquarters, Gill urged both sides to cool it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cSpecifically in relation to the comments made by President Zelenskyy, we are very clear as the European Commission…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":637081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[5495,271406,29064,2850,50,257,4995,273,59850,16815,3656,131,275,103],"class_list":{"0":"post-637080","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-energy","9":"tag-hungarian-elections-2026","10":"tag-hungarian-politics","11":"tag-hungary","12":"tag-news","13":"tag-russia","14":"tag-security","15":"tag-ukraine","16":"tag-ukrainian-politics","17":"tag-viktor-orban","18":"tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy","19":"tag-war","20":"tag-war-in-ukraine","21":"tag-world"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116184078744719272","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}