Hungary will gradually halt gas exports to Ukraine amid Druzhba pipeline dispute

Published on 25/03/2026 - 13:38 GMT+1

Hungary volition gradually halt state exports to Ukraine until Kyiv resumes lipid shipments done the Druzhba pipeline.

The determination was announced connected Wednesday by the country's Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who added that the state would beryllium redirected to refill the country’s ain retention alternatively of being supplied to Ukraine.

"We volition gradually halt state supplies from Hungary to Ukraine, and we volition store the remaining state astatine home," Orbán said successful a societal media video posted aft a furniture meeting."As agelong arsenic Ukraine does not proviso oil, we volition not proviso state from Hungary."

Orbán's announcement comes arsenic Hungary and Ukraine are locked successful a quality implicit the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline, which carries Russian lipid to Hungary and Slovakia. The pipeline was damaged successful a Russian onslaught successful precocious February and has not been repaired since.

Both Hungary and Slovakia impeach Ukraine —which has said repairs could instrumentality up to six weeks— of utilizing the contented for governmental gain.

Orbán’s authorities has repeatedly alleged that Ukraine is trying to trigger an vigor situation up of Hungary’s April 12 wide predetermination successful an effort to undermine his administration.

He argued successful the video that Hungary besides needed to physique up its ain earthy state reserves pursuing Ukrainian attacks connected the Russia-based TurkStream pipeline, which carries Russian earthy state via Turkey to Hungary.

The quality implicit the Druzhba pipeline has stalled the disbursement of the EU's €90bn assistance bundle to Ukraine, which Hungary is blocking.

The European Commission has offered method and fiscal assistance to assistance Ukraine measure and repair the damage, though it has yet to corroborate whether its squad of experts has gained entree to the site.

Ukraine has repeatedly called connected Hungary and Slovakia to decouple from Russian fossil fuels. Both countries import a ample magnitude of lipid and state from Russia.

Ukraine’s vigor analytics institution ExPro reported that the Hungarian way is among the country’s superior earthy state import corridors.

According to its estimates, Ukraine imported implicit 2.9 cardinal cubic meters of earthy state from Hungary successful 2025, accounting for 45 percent of the nation’s full imports.