Hungarian FM Peter Szijjarto accuses Ukraine of undermining Central Europe's energy security by blocking gas transits
In an interview with Russian state media TASS, Szijjarto said 'The TurkStream pipeline is working on full capacity not without a good reason. We have a long- term contract, plus we buy on spot basis, plus Slovakia buys its gas now through Hungary because Ukraine was 'kind enough' to lock down transit through its own territory, endangering the energy safety of supplies in the Central European region.'
Stating that Kyiv's calls for solidarity with Europe are made more questionable by such actions, he added 'So when we speak about solidarity, I'm not quite sure that we understand the same definition under that on both sides of the border.'
Hungary has long been opposed to Ukraine's bid for joining the EU, stating that Budapest will not allow itself to be dragged into a war with Russia by allowing Kyiv to join the bloc.
It has also been one of the few countries which has refused to supply any military equipment to Ukraine, or cut its ties with Moscow.
Rather, it has become even closer to Russia, as Budapest is joining the country in construction of new gas pipelines, much to the opposition of Brussels which is seeking to cut its reliance on Russian energy.
Slovakia has insisted on maintaining the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine, whose authorities stopped supplies at the beginning of this year.
As such, Bratislava currently receives energy raw materials from Russia via the TurkStream pipeline, though their volume is less than half of the republic's gas imports.
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