Hungary to suspend diesel supplies to Ukraine

Szijjártó says Hungary will stop diesel fuel shipments to Ukraine

Hungary will suspend diesel fuel supplies to Ukraine until oil deliveries through the Druzhba pipeline resume, the foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó, said. No crude oil has reached Hungary and Slovakia via the pipeline since 27 January, when it was struck by Russia, and deliveries have not restarted. Budapest has blamed Ukraine for the disruption, with Szijjártó accusing Kyiv of “political blackmail” and insisting that all technical, physical and logistical conditions are in place for the resumption of shipments. The halt has led the Mol Group to ask the energy ministry to release strategic oil reserves, while the European Commission has urged Ukraine to restore the pipeline’s operation.

Szijjártó said Hungary’s oil supply remained secure, citing three months of reserves and the expected availability of Russian oil from mid-March. While EU rules prohibit Russian oil imports, Hungary and Slovakia have exemptions for pipeline transport and have notified the European Commission of their intention to import Russian crude until pipeline deliveries are restored. Mol has ordered 500,000 tonnes, with shipments due to arrive at a Croatian port in early March and reach refineries in Hungary and Slovakia within five to ten days.

Hungary and Slovakia have also asked Croatia to allow the transport of Russian crude via the Adriatic pipeline, despite earlier disputes over its capacity. A recent study has also found that, since the start of the Russia's invasion, Hungary and Slovakia have substantially increased their dependence on Russian oil rather than reducing it.

Hungary is the most corrupt EU country according to Transparency

Hungary and Bulgaria have once again been ranked as the most corrupt countries in the European Union, according to Transparency International’s 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index. Both states scored 40 out of 100, with Hungary’s result slipping by one point and placing it 84th out of 182 countries, alongside Cuba, Tanzania and Burkina Faso. The index notes that Hungary, together with countries such as Venezuela, Syria and South Sudan, belongs to a group that has experienced sustained declines in scores since 2012, a trend the report links to long-term erosion of integrity systems driven by democratic backsliding, institutional weakening and entrenched patronage networks. In 2012, Hungary’s score stood at 55 points.

Compared with 2024, Hungary lost one point and fell from 82nd to 84th place globally, reflecting what Transparency International Hungary described as a continued failure to address rule-of-law deficiencies and curb systemic corruption. Between 2012 and 2025, Hungary’s score measuring resilience against public-sector corruption fell by 15 points, the steepest decline among EU member states. By contrast, the Baltic states showed sustained improvement, with Estonia ranking first in the region, followed by Lithuania with 65 points and Latvia with 60, widening the gap between the region’s top performers and the lowest-ranked countries to 36 points.

Trump assures Orbán of his total endorsement at Board of Peace meeting

US President Donald Trump expressed his strongest backing yet for Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán, as he faces a tight election on 12 April. Speaking at the first inaugural meeting of his Board of Peace initiative in Washington on Thursday, Trump gave his “complete and total” endorsement of Orbán, telling those present that “not everybody in Europe loves that endorsement, but that’s okay” and praising the Hungarian leader’s policies particularly on immigration. Orbán, who is trailing the opposition in most opinion polls, has increasingly looked to Trump’s support as he campaigns for a fifth consecutive term in office.

The remarks followed a visit to Budapest earlier in the week by US secretary of state Marco Rubio, who said Orbán’s re-election would be in the national interests of the US. After Trump’s comments, the forint erased its intraday losses against the euro. According to analysts, a victory for Péter Magyar’s opposition Tisza party could help unlock EU funds frozen over Orbán’s policies, improve relations with Brussels and put Hungary on a path towards euro adoption. Orbán has previously sought a potential “financial shield” from Trump, an option Rubio appeared to leave open. Orbán remains among the few European leaders not to distance himself from the Board of Peace, which has drawn support mostly from political allies with a populist outlook.