Péter Szijjártó said after a cabinet meeting that the government has reviewed the situation after crude deliveries were stopped on Jan 27.

“Despite promises and assurances, it has still not been restored due to a Ukrainian political decision even though every technical condition is at hand, according to our information,” he said.

Szijjártó said the “political decision” had been made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky personally. The “political blackmail”, he said, was aimed at pushing Hungary to fulfil Kyiv’s demands and strong-arm the government into “supporting the war, allowing Hungarians’ money to be taken to Ukraine and to allow Ukraine into the EU.”

Further, Szijjártó said Hungary was expected to give up using cheap Russian energy resources and give up the utility price caps. He said he firmly rejected such “Ukrainian interference” and that Hungary’s future would be decided exclusively by Hungarians “even if Zelensky is trying to whip up an oil supply crisis here”.

Meanwhile, Szijjártó said Hungary had an important role in Ukraine’s energy supply by delivering a substantial amount of electricity, gas and diesel.

“I would like to inform you that diesel fuel deliveries towards Ukraine have been stopped. It will not be restarted until Ukraine resumes crude deliveries to Hungary through the Druzhba pipeline,” he said.

The minister called on Hungarians to “stand up against Ukrainian blackmail [by filling out] the national petition; let’s say no to Hungary being dragged into the war and to higher energy prices.”

The government is doing everything possible to ensure secure crude supplies and to preserve the utility price cuts, he said. For now, none of those are in danger, not even through “Ukrainian political blackmail”, he said. “We have reserves sufficient for more than three months, and its use of parts of it is being decided now.”

Szijjártó also noted that he and his Slovak counterpart have notified the European Commission in a letter that the two countries were taking advantage of an earlier agreement with the EC, under which they may import Russian crude through maritime channels should pipeline deliveries become impossible.

The EU regulation on the matter was binding “for Croatia too”, he said, referring to negotiations with that country on oil deliveries from port through the Adria pipeline. The delivery had already been ordered and is expected to arrive by mid-March, he added.

“I would like to highlight once again: neither Hungary’s fuel nor its energy supplies are at risk, despite Ukrainian political blackmail,” Szijjártó said.

Later on Wednesday, Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi said on Telegram that “Hungary knows perfectly well that the Druzhba pipeline stopped because Russia has hit it.”

“From the very first day, Hungary has been perfectly aware of the reasons behind the delivery outage on the pipeline. In this situation, it seems strange that the Hungarian partner has failed to issue statements clearly stating that Russia has targeted the pipeline, their favourite oil fix,” he said.