Hungary’s Orban says Ukraine planning steps to disrupt energy system

BUDAPEST, Feb 25 - Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Wednesday accused Ukraine of planning to disrupt the Hungarian energy system and ordered the deployment of soldiers and equipment to safeguard critical infrastructure.

His action further escalates a dispute with Ukraine over an outage on the Druzhba oil pipeline carrying Russian crude deliveries to Hungary and Slovakia - both of whom blame Kyiv for the prolonged halt to supplies for its refineries.

Kyiv says the outage was caused by a Russian drone strike hitting pipeline equipment in Western Ukraine. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Orban's accusation on Wednesday.

Orban, speaking in a video on his Facebook page, reiterated the Druzhba shutdown was for "political, not technical, reasons" and said intelligence reports show possible further disruption to Hungary's energy system.

"I see that Ukraine is preparing further actions to disrupt the operation of the Hungarian energy system," Orban said.

"Therefore, I have ordered the reinforcement of protection for critical energy infrastructure. This means that we will deploy soldiers and equipment necessary to repel attacks near key energy facilities."

Hungary and Slovakia have maintained ties with Moscow and disagreed with European Union partners over their military support for Ukraine as its fights Russia's invasion.

On Monday, Hungary maintained its veto on new EU sanctions on Russia and a huge loan for Ukraine amid a dispute over oil supplies.

Orban has cast Hungary's upcoming April 12 parliamentary election as a stark choice between "war or peace", saying his opponents would drag the country into the war raging next door in Ukraine. REUTERS