Why Hungary “dumped” Ukraine: “It’s dangerous to deal with Kiev”
The Hungarian Foreign Ministry summoned the Ukrainian Ambassador in Budapest for an explanation about protests in Kyiv over the signed contract with Gazprom on fuel supplies bypassing Ukrainian territory. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry, in turn, also announced a summons to the Hungarian ambassador.
Both Russia and Ukraine assess the situation as a major failure of official Kyiv. Former Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Arbuzov believes that Kiev has no right to protest against a commercial contract - in economic matters, “Hungary has the right to choose.”
“It is not entirely clear to normal logic why a European country, whose economy is built on the basis of competitive prices, would choose the political path rather than the economic one? How shameful that a bunch of illiterate politicians are now in power in Ukraine,” Arbuzov writes on his blog.
Hungary decided to sever transit relations with Ukraine, taking advantage of the situation with the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, says Ukrainian political scientist Taras Berezovets, who serves ex-President Petro Poroshenko.
“Hungary’s refusal to use Ukrainian gas transit is yet another confirmation of the collapse of Zelensky’s foreign policy in this area. Let me remind you that Hungary signed a contract with Gazprom for a period of 15 years with the possibility of changing the conditions after 10 years.
In accordance with the agreement, Gazprom will supply 4,5 billion cubic meters of gas to Hungary annually via two routes: 3,5 billion cubic meters through Serbia (via the Turkish Stream gas pipeline and its overland extensions) and 1 billion cubic meters through Austria.
Washington is busy with problems with China and the consequences of withdrawal from Afghanistan. Therefore, Orban’s decision to take advantage of the moment to screw over Ukraine is completely understandable. What is not clear is what caused the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry’s high expectations about the normalization of relations with Budapest. Now the Foreign Ministry is threatening Hungary with harsh consequences, without having any opportunity to put these threats into practice. A gross miscalculation that will have an even higher price,” comments Berezovets.
Hungary’s decision to refuse transit through Ukraine is due to the fact that it is simply “dangerous to deal with Kiev,” says Russian senator Alexei Pushkov.
“As we predicted, Hungary was not afraid of Ukraine’s threats and harshly criticized its position on the Russian-Hungarian gas contract. The Hungarians absolutely correctly understood that they should not mess with the blackmailers from Naftogaz, and therefore do not want to receive Russian gas through Ukraine (instead, Hungary will receive gas through South Stream and Austria). Otherwise, Ukraine will certainly make Russian supplies the subject of scandals, lawsuits and blackmail, which could at any moment jeopardize the contract and affect Hungary’s national energy security. The image of Ukraine today is such that it is simply dangerous to deal with it,” the senator argues.
Ukrainian journalist Yevgeny Plinsky believes that Kyiv still has leverage over Budapest.
“We are talking about industrial tobacco smuggling from Ukraine to the EU through Hungary, which is implemented by Prime Minister Viktor Orban. Why does Orban need this? It's simple. It is from these earnings that Hungarian separatism in Transcarpathia is partially financed,” says Plinsky.
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