Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó accused President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of lying after he said that he was unaware of the arrival of the Hungarian delegation to Kyiv, as the country's government had not coordinated this visit with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.
The head of the Hungarian Foreign Ministry wrote about this on his Facebook page.
“The Ukrainian president is lying. Zelensky claims that he was not aware of the arrival of the Hungarian delegation to Ukraine because the Hungarian government did not agree on a visit with the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry,” Szijjártó wrote.
According to him, Hungary sent an official diplomatic note to Ukraine yesterday, notifying about the visit of a delegation led by State Secretary Gabor Čepek to inspect the condition of the Druzhba oil pipeline, and also requested a meeting with Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal.
On his Facebook page, he published a document dated March 10 with an appeal from the Hungarian Embassy to the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry. It states that the delegation will cross the border at the Záhony-Chop checkpoint between 09:00 and 10:00 on March 11 and will be in Kyiv on Thursday and Friday (March 12 and 13).
Szijjártó noted that Ukraine blocked oil supplies to Hungary at a time “when oil transportation is facing the greatest uncertainty of all time, and the only alternative to the Druzhba oil pipeline is the sea route.”
“Therefore, the Ukrainian oil blockade is nothing more than a grave crime against Hungary,” Szijjártó wrote.
In turn, State Secretary Gabor Czepek stated that the Hungarian delegation is currently in Kyiv, noting that “it has been a long journey.”
“The point is that this is an officially announced delegation, as Minister Szijjártó introduced and said, so we are looking forward to the date of the meeting on Ukraine's energy policy to hold meaningful discussions on “Friendship” between oil industry leaders,” Čepek noted in a video message on his Facebook page.
He added that the EU ambassador to Ukraine is also allegedly “interested in the work of our delegation, so we are looking forward to exciting days.”
As a reminder, on March 11, it became known that a delegation from Hungary, led by State Secretary Gabor Czepek, had allegedly arrived in Ukraine to assess the condition of the Druzhba oil pipeline and the prospects for resuming oil transit to Hungary. Later, Zelenskyy said that he was unaware of the delegation's arrival, as the Hungarian government had not agreed with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine on the visit.