Hungary's Chargé d'Affaires summoned to MFA twice, told that distorting content of conversations unacceptable – Tykhyi

Hungary's Chargé d'Affaires was summoned twice to the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday. The second summons was prompted by comments from Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó, the ministry's spokesman, Heorhiy Tykhyi, reported.

"Since Minister Szijjártó spread false narratives and completely distorted the content of the meeting with the Hungarian Chargé d'Affaires to the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Hungarian diplomat was summoned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs again. At the second meeting, which took place several hours after the first, he was informed of the unacceptability of distorting the content of conversations, with the faint hope that the second time, the correct content would reach Budapest," Tykhyi said in response to a question from journalists.

He noted that during the meetings at the Foreign Ministry, the Ukrainian side made no indication, specifically that "the resumption of oil supplies to Hungary via the Druzhba pipeline is blocked for political reasons." However, the subject was statements by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán regarding potential threats to the country's critical energy infrastructure.

"The Hungarian side, in particular, was informed that Ukraine is ready to provide assistance to Hungary to protect its facilities. The Ukrainian side proposed establishing operational channels for information exchange and coordination between the relevant agencies of both countries responsible for protecting critical infrastructure," Tykhyi noted.

Earlier, Szijjártó stated that the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry summoned the Hungarian chargé d'affaires in Kyiv and "admitted" that Ukraine "keeps the Druzhba oil pipeline closed for political reasons."

"Today they summoned our embassy chargé d'affaires to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, where they admitted they are keeping the pipeline closed for political reasons... They admitted there is no physical or technical reason not to resume supplies, only political ones. They also made it clear they want weapons and money in exchange for resuming oil supplies to Hungary," Szijjártó said in a video posted on his Facebook page.

At the same time, he stated that Ukraine has no right to threaten or jeopardize Hungary’s energy supply.