BUDAPEST/KYIV/DUBLIN — Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban accused Ukraine on Wednesday of preparing to disrupt Hungary’s energy system and ordered soldiers and equipment deployed to protect critical infrastructure, escalating a dispute over a shutdown of the Druzhba oil pipeline that has choked Russian crude deliveries to Hungary and Slovakia.
Orban, speaking in a video posted to his Facebook page, said the Druzhba outage was for “political, not technical, reasons,” and cited intelligence reports pointing to possible further interference. “I see that Ukraine is preparing further actions to disrupt the operation of the Hungarian energy system,” he 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.”
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Budapest and Bratislava have blamed Kyiv for the prolonged halt to supplies to their refineries via Druzhba. Ukraine says the outage was caused by a Russian drone strike that hit pipeline equipment in western Ukraine. The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Orban’s accusation.
Hungary and Slovakia have maintained ties with Moscow and frequently broken ranks with European Union partners over military support for Kyiv since Russia’s 2022 invasion. On Monday, Hungary maintained its veto on new EU sanctions on Russia and a major loan package for Ukraine amid the oil-supply dispute. Orban has cast Hungary’s April 12 parliamentary election as a choice between “war or peace,” arguing that his opponents would pull the country deeper into the war next door.
In western Russia, officials said a Ukrainian drone strike on a fertilizer plant near the town of Dorogobuzh in the Smolensk region killed seven people and wounded 10 others. The plant, located about 290 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, was hit late Tuesday, with unverified images on social media showing flames and columns of smoke rising into the night sky.
Smolensk region governor Vasily Anokhin said on Telegram that the target was PJSC Dorogobuzh, a civilian producer of nitrogen fertilizer. Russia’s Investigative Committee, which probes major crimes, said seven people were killed, updating an earlier toll, and said Ukraine fired “at least 30 drones equipped with explosive devices,” causing “significant damage.” Authorities contained the fires by Wednesday morning and were weighing evacuations from a neighboring village, Anokhin added. Russian media reported the same plant was targeted in December. Ukraine, which denies targeting civilians, did not immediately comment.
Since 2022, Ukraine has launched thousands of long-range drone strikes into Russia, hitting oil and gas infrastructure and other industrial sites far from the front lines. Kyiv says the campaign is legitimate retaliation for Russian strikes that have killed civilians and crippled Ukraine’s energy network and that the attacks aim to degrade Russia’s war-fighting capacity. The strikes have caused billions of dollars in damage, according to Russian and independent estimates.
In Ireland, new Irish Red Cross research on Ukrainians living under the EU Temporary Protection Directive — which is due to expire next year — found that a majority are working but remain uncertain about their future. Of roughly 84,000 Ukrainians in the country, 56% of adults surveyed reported being employed. More than half said they had difficulty finding long-term housing.
Niall O’Keeffe, head of international and migration at the Irish Red Cross, said the host accommodation program — which pays Irish households to host Ukrainians — has been central to integration. “The findings from the survey indicate people are really, really happy with this scheme,” he told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland, adding that hosts are often refugees’ primary source of local information. “This evidence then points to this scheme being a model program.” He noted the current scheme is due to expire in March and said he hopes it continues.
The survey highlighted ongoing challenges: 47% cited language as a barrier to employment; 39% said they are working in jobs for which they are overqualified; and more than 70% said they are barely making ends meet. Sixty-four percent reported uncertainty about their futures in both Ireland and Ukraine. O’Keeffe said additional language support and clarity on longer-term legal status could help people plan, retrain and stabilize their lives.
By Abdiwahab Ahmed
Axadle Times international–Monitoring.
