BUDAPEST, Hungary — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Wednesday ordered extra security at critical energy infrastructure sites after claiming Ukraine was attempting to disrupt Hungary’s energy system.
Budapest has recently accused Kyiv of deliberately holding back Russian oil deliveries through the Druzhba pipeline, which crosses Ukraine’s territory. Ukrainian officials have denied the allegations, saying the pipeline, which feeds refineries in Hungary and Slovakia, was hit in a Russian drone attack.
Mr. Orbán has in recent weeks launched an aggressive anti-Ukraine campaign ahead of elections in April which will likely be the toughest he’s faced in his 16 years in power. He has cast the neighboring country as a grave threat.
Mr. Orban, one of President Trump’s most vocal supporters among European leaders, has during his time in office, sought closer ties for the NATO member with Russia and China and his anti-Ukraine comments come ahead of peace talks in Geneva, Switzerland on Thursday.
A Ukrainian delegation is set to meet with Mr. Trump’s envoys as part of another round of trilateral talks with Russia.
A U.S. push for peace has already brought Russia and Ukraine to the table in Abu Dhabi and Geneva this year, but the talks have produced no breakthrough on key differences as Russia’s invasion of its neighbor enters its fifth year.
Thursday’s meeting will address details of a possible postwar recovery plan for Ukraine.
On Tuesday, amid events marking the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted that Russia has not defeated Ukraine nor broken the Ukrainian spirit, despite Moscow’s bigger and better equipped army and heavy bombardment of civilian areas.
Ukrainian forces have in recent months pushed Russia’s army back at points along the roughly 750-mile front line in eastern areas of the country, according to the Institute for the Study of War.
The “significant gains” are the biggest since 2024, the Washington-based think tank said, though they are unlikely to grow into major offensives as Ukraine struggles with a troop shortage. Even so, they likely will disrupt Russian plans for a spring-summer offensive, it said.
Ukraine has also continued its almost nightly long-range drone barrage of military and allied infrastructure targets deep inside Russia.
The U.S. State Department has expressed its displeasure with Ukraine’s recent attacks on the Russian port of Novorossiysk on the Black Sea that have impacted U.S. oil interests in Kazakhstan, Kyiv’s chief envoy to Washington said Tuesday.
A Ukrainian drone attack on the Dorogobuzh fertilizer plant in western Russia’s Smolensk region killed seven workers, injured 10 people and caused a fire, Gov. Vasily Anokhin said.
Ukrainian authorities said Russia attacked with 115 drones overnight, including one strike on a village in the southern Zaporizhzhia district that killed four people and injured a child, the State Emergency Service said.
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