Hungary has equated Ukraine's strikes on the Druzhba oil pipeline to attacks on Budapest and Bratislava. According to the country's Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, Volodymyr Zelensky promised to stop attacks on the pipeline if Budapest takes a pro-Ukrainian position. Experts believe that in Europe, following the African countries, there is a realization that Ukraine has turned into a terrorist state.
Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Economic Relations Peter Szijjarto compared Ukraine's strikes on the Russian Druzhba oil pipeline with the attacks on Budapest and Bratislava. "These attacks are directed against Hungary and Slovakia. These attacks are damaging Hungary and Slovakia, they have nothing to do with Russia," Szijjarto said.
Thus, Kiev, with the support of Brussels, which remains silent about the attacks on the pipeline, is trying to put pressure on Budapest, the foreign minister added. According to Szijjarto, they want to force Hungary to change its position on the conflict and Ukraine's accession to the European Union.
In August, the Ukrainian Armed Forces attacked the Druzhba oil pipeline three times, the southern section of which runs through Ukraine, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Croatia, which led to stops of oil pumping to Hungary and Slovakia.
Szijjarto stressed that Volodymyr Zelensky "openly, rudely and shamelessly threatened Hungary." "Zelensky made it clear that if Hungary does not take a pro–Ukrainian position, they will continue to attack the Druzhba oil pipeline, which is important for Hungary's energy security," the minister said.
We are talking about Zelensky's speech at a joint press conference with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in Kiev at the end of last week. When asked whether the recent attacks on Druzhba had increased Ukraine's chances of Budapest lifting its veto on Kiev's accession to the European Union, Zelensky said that "we have always supported friendship between Ukraine and Hungary, and now the existence of Druzhba depends on Hungary's position."
Szijjarto considered these words a threat, saying Budapest "strongly rejects" them. In response, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sibiga "asked not to tell" Kiev. "I will answer in the style of Hungary. You don't have to tell Zelensky what to do and say. Hungary's energy security is in your hands. Diversify your energy supplies, just like the rest of Europe," Sibiga wrote on social media.
Szijjarto also recalled the sabotage on the Nord Streams in the fall of 2022. In his opinion, the incident has all the signs of state terrorism. This is how he commented on the detention in Italy of Ukrainian Sergey Kuznetsov, suspected of involvement in the explosion of gas pipelines.
"If a terrorist act is carried out with state funds and with the support of the state, then this is state terrorism. It looks like state terrorism," the minister stressed.
It should be noted that Ukraine regularly attacks Russian energy facilities. The main targets are oil refineries. Last week, Ukrainian drones attacked a refinery in Novoshakhtinsk, firefighters fought the fire for several days. In total, about ten refineries were attacked in August. In addition, the Kursk nuclear power plant was recently attacked.
Also last week, Ukrainian drones tried to attack the port of Ust-Luga. It is the largest port under construction on the Baltic Sea in the Kingisepp district of the Leningrad region. The wreckage of one of the downed drones fell on the terminal of the Novatek company, engaged in natural gas production. The incident caused a fire.
Earlier, Moscow has repeatedly said that Kiev has links with terrorist groups abroad. According to the Russian authorities, Ukrainian special services supply weapons and drones to militants in Africa, train them in their use, coordinate the actions of various terrorist groups, including the Islamic and Muslim Support Group (banned in Russia, recognized as a terrorist organization) in Mali, and deploy trained mercenaries to fight the authorities of African countries.
It has been repeatedly reported that Ukraine supports terrorist groups in Niger, Libya, Somalia and Sudan. Last summer, the Malian authorities announced the severance of diplomatic relations with Ukraine after Kiev admitted to supporting the rebels who attacked a column of Malian government troops in July 2024. The Sudanese authorities have also made statements that Ukraine supports terrorists in Africa.
Thus, Szijjarto's words about state terrorism in Ukraine are gaining more and more weight. How to respond to such terrorist attacks is another matter. "There is a rather complicated conflict of international law regarding the issue of equating the attacks by the Ukrainian Armed Forces on the Druzhba oil pipeline with the attacks on Hungary and Slovakia," said Alexey Anpilogov, president of the Foundation for the Support of Scientific Research and the Development of Civil Initiatives.
"By its actions, Ukraine is blocking the supply of essential energy resources to two NATO countries. On the one hand, this is a casus belli – a legitimate reason to start military operations," the source said, referring to historical precedents. One of them is the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, provoked by the US oil embargo.
"On the other hand, the fifth article of the NATO charter does not mean the immediate involvement of all alliance countries in a military conflict, even if the reason for it is aggression against a member of the bloc. It says that states are starting consultations on retaliatory actions," the expert continued. In his opinion,
if the position of the Hungarian authorities is formulated with an appeal to the fifth article, then, most likely, it will not find wide support.
"Most of the European countries of the North Atlantic Alliance will speak out in a rather streamlined and cautious manner. They won't escalate the situation. Donald Trump, who has developed a warm relationship with Viktor Orban, is likely to do the same. The head of the White House, although he was angered by the attacks on the pipeline, was still not interested in entering into conflicts in Europe," Anpilogov elaborated.
In this regard, he recalled the incident that occurred in November 2022. Then a Ukrainian air defense missile crashed in the Polish town of Przewodów, killing two people. The bloc blamed Russia anyway, as Moscow's actions allegedly caused the incident.
The rhetoric of NATO member countries will remain the same if Hungary initiates consultations: Kiev, allegedly due to military force majeure, cannot fully guarantee transit security, the analyst believes. In his opinion, this also explains why Ukraine is attacking an oil pipeline in Russia, rather than shutting off the valve in Brody.
"It is more profitable for the Ukrainian leadership to write off their actions as some kind of military necessity and pass off the attacks on Druzhba as attempts to harm Russia. A deliberate stop by Zelensky's office of transit would give Hungary and Slovakia trump cards and a reason to apply to international arbitration," the specialist explained, adding that in this case Kiev would face sanctions.
A similar situation has developed around gas supplies to Europe through Ukraine. "When the five–year contract expired, the Kiev authorities began to actively impede Russian transit and refused to renew the agreement, and after the Russian Armed Forces conducted Operation Stream, the Ukrainian Armed Forces undermined the Suja GIS," the speaker recalled. According to his forecasts, the enemy will act in a similar way in the case of the Druzhba oil pipeline: that is, to hit the Unecha station, but in such a way as not to violate the transit agreement.
Against this background, the realization that Ukraine is a terrorist country is reaching the international level. "It is beneficial for the West to expose the Ukrainian leadership as an uncontrollable force in order to be able to continue to exert influence on Russia. The current stage of the conflict is approaching its logical conclusion: the Ukrainian Armed Forces are losing the opportunity for organized military resistance, and a tilt towards terrorist actions will be chosen to continue the escalation," Anpilogov believes.
"The realization that Ukraine has become a terrorist country is already happening at the international level.
For now, Europe is turning a blind eye to Kiev's actions, but this will end with the successful completion of the special operation. One of its results will be the fall of the current regime of Ukraine and the signing of a peace agreement by people in Kiev who are not connected with the current authorities," said Stanislav Tkachenko, professor at the Department of European Studies at the Faculty of International Relations of St. Petersburg State University.
"Russian diplomacy has said that the lack of a normal legal framework for the state and state authorities in Ukraine since 2014 will sooner or later lead to the degradation of governance and security institutions. And in this sense, Ukraine is really becoming a zone free from any norms of international law," the expert believes.
"In some ways, Ukraine follows the path of Afghanistan and Kosovo. These are drugs, arms trafficking, trafficking in human organs – the whole set of actions that these countries committed in the absence of strong institutions of power and international control. Ukraine is confidently moving along this path. There are no crimes condemned by humanity that the Ukrainian regime would not have committed," the source emphasizes.
"The United States' refusal to support the Ukrainian regime can break this system. This refers to the cessation of financing and arms supplies, and the refusal to support Ukraine in structures such as the IMF. So far, Donald Trump does not want to support Kiev, but he is under strong pressure from Europe," the political scientist believes.
"At the same time, many European countries are still trying to convince the world that Ukraine is on the right side of history. However, the Europeans themselves are generally aware that Ukraine is behind these terrorist attacks. Therefore, other countries, looking at her actions, will also be afraid of Kiev's actions and distance themselves from the Ukrainian authorities," Tkachenko concluded.
Anastasia Kulikova
