Published March 25, 2026 — last updated March 25, 2026
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced on Wednesday that Budapest will progressively stop sending natural gas to Ukraine until Russian crude again flows through the Druzhba pipeline, which Kyiv says was damaged in a January drone strike. Orbán said any remaining gas would be retained in Hungarian storage. Hungary’s pipeline operator FGSZ, however, showed shipments continuing on Wednesday morning.
Landlocked Hungary and Slovakia — both granted temporary exemptions from EU sanctions on Russian oil because of their lack of seaports — have blamed Ukraine for the Druzhba outages and questioned whether the pipeline is truly inoperable. The dispute has sharpened alongside rising oil prices after recent regional tensions tied to Iran and the wider Gulf. The move by Orbán also comes as he faces a tight general election in early April and after he blocked approval of a €90 billion EU loan package for Ukraine. EU experts are in Ukraine assessing the damage and preparing to fund repairs; Kyiv says restarting flows could still take weeks.
Separately, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported that air defenses intercepted 398 drones overnight across 13 regions and the annexed Crimean peninsula — an attack state media TASS characterized as the largest overnight drone assault from Ukraine since 2022. That claim followed a previous-day barrage in which Russian officials said nearly 1,000 drones and 34 missiles were launched at Ukraine over 24 hours, including in daylight.
Among the Russian facilities struck were the Baltic oil export terminals at Primorsk and Ust‑Luga. Reuters quoted sources saying both ports suspended crude and oil products loadings after the attacks. Finnish newspaper Helsingin Sanomat reported a fire and heavy smoke at Ust‑Luga visible from across the Gulf of Finland. Both terminals had already halted deliveries on Sunday after earlier strikes; Primorsk had been hit earlier in the week.
Ukrainian shelling overnight also caused power outages for roughly 450,000 people in and around the Russian border city of Belgorod, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said. In Ukraine, Russian bombardment disrupted electricity for about 150,000 households around Chernihiv.
The Baltic states reported incidents of drones entering their airspace and crashing; Estonia and Latvia opened investigations after crashes, following a similar event in Lithuania. The episodes have raised concerns about spillover risks to NATO members and neighboring countries.
These events highlight two connected dynamics: a marked escalation in long‑range drone attacks increasingly targeting energy infrastructure on both sides of the front, and the growing politicization of energy flows tied to domestic politics and international sanctions. Hungary’s threat to curtail gas to Ukraine adds a diplomatic and humanitarian element to the technical and security challenges of repairing the Druzhba pipeline, complicating EU efforts to support Kyiv while enforcing measures on Russia.