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The first incident took place on Wednesday, Aug. 12, when Ukrainian drones struck the Unecha junction and pumping station in Bryansk Oblast, causing a fire which disrupted the supply of crude deliveries to Hungary until Friday, Aug. 15. Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó condemned the targeting of the pipeline.
The next attack took place three days later on Monday, Aug. 18, when the Nikolskoye oil pumping station in Michurinsky District in Tambov Oblast was attacked by Ukraine’s 14th Drone Regiment, this time causing a complete interruption of Druzhba pipeline flow.
Szijjártó labeled the strike “against [Hungary’s] energy security” as “outrageous and unacceptable!” After repairs to a crucial transformer station, Russian Deputy Energy Minister Pavel Sorokin informed Szijjártó that the flow of supplies had been restored two days later.
Finally, on Friday, Aug. 22, the Unecha distribution and pumping station in Bryansk Oblast was targeted again, this time by rocket fire in addition to drone strikes, causing more significant damage and leading to a more prolonged disruption of supply. According to Szijjártó, restoring transit deliveries of Russian crude to Hungary would take “at least five days.”
In response to the repeated attacks, Szijjártó and his Slovak counterpart Juraj Blanár sent a letter to EU High Representative Kaja Kallas and Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen requesting support in ensuring supply security.
The letter recalled a European Commission declaration issued on Jan. 27 of this year, which called on third countries to respect the integrity of the energy infrastructure supplying member states as a “matter of EU security,” adding that the commission was “ready to take measures to protect critical energy infrastructure such as electricity cables and oil or gas pipelines or facilities.” Szijjártó demanded to know where that support was now.
“After all three strikes, it [the EC] has remained silent, taking no steps to defend the energy supply of member states,” the letter protested. “Given that in the past years, the EU and its member states have provided hundreds of billions of Euros worth of support to Ukraine, we find Ukraine’s actions, which severely threaten the energy security of Hungary and Slovakia, completely unacceptable,” the letter complained.
Acting of its own accord, the Hungarian government proceeded to ban the commander of the Ukrainian military unit responsible for the attacks on the Druzhba’s infrastructure from Hungary and the Schengen area for three years, claiming his presence was a “national security risk.”
“The latest attack has been extremely serious […], repair works took such a long time, that [Hungary] nearly had to use its strategic or emergency reserves,” Szijjártó said, adding that “an attack against our country’s sovereignty […] cannot pass without consequences.”
The commander was confirmed to be Robert Brovdi, head of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Forces, who is ironically of Hungarian descent and goes by the call-sign “Magyar.” Brovdi responded defiantly, accusing Hungarian authorities of “not defending the sovereignty of Hungary,” but “defending [their] own dirty pockets. By buying filthy, cheap raw materials, you are complicit,” he said. “Your hands are soaked in blood up to the elbows, and we will not forget it.”
On Sunday, Aug. 24, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky suggested that the attacks on the pipeline might be connected to Ukraine’s accession to the European Union, which Hungary has consistently resisted. He was asked whether the attacks were meant to put pressure on Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to lift his veto on Ukraine’s accession negotiations.
“We always supported the friendship between Ukraine and Hungary, and now the existence of the friendship depends on what Hungary’s position is,” Zelensky responded.
“We firmly reject the Ukrainian President’s intimidation,” Szijjártó replied. Earlier, the foreign minister had made insinuations of his own, reminding “Ukrainian decision-makers [that] electricity from Hungary plays a vital role in powering your country.”
On Aug. 18, State Secretary Gábor Czepek provided precise figures to emphasize this point. While 40% of Ukraine’s electricity imports in 2024 came from Hungary, the amount of gas delivered between January and August this year was nearly equal to the entirety of last year’s, the volume of which had doubled between 2022 and 2023.
Yet, Orbán said that Hungary does not have an interest in Ukraine collapsing, “even though we could bring it about in a single day,” he told the Patrióta YouTube channel in an interview on Aug. 12. “If some accident were to happen, and some poles fell over or some power lines broke, Ukraine would come to a stop,” the prime minister insisted.
A Russian missile attack in Ukraine struck the assembly plant of American-owned company Flex in Mukachevo (known to Hungarians as Munkács, 290 km east of Budapest by road) on Aug. 21, injuring 23 people, including cases of shrapnel wounds and head injuries, according to kárpátalja.ma. The blast triggered a large fire and released hazardous smoke at the facility, Forbes reported. The attack has endangered the jobs of thousands of workers, including approximately 2,500 Hungarians. Local management has already initiated discussions with the company regarding the relocation of production. Miroslav Bilecki, head of the Transcarpathian Military Administration, confirmed the injury count in a post on his Facebook page.
This article was first published in the Budapest Business Journal print issue of September 5, 2025.
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