Zelenskyy: I believe Orbán will lose election and relations with Hungary will be normalised
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has expressed hope that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán's party will lose the election and then normalisation of relations with Hungary will be possible.
When Zelenskyy was asked in an interview with Italian media outlet Corriere della Sera what to do with pro-Russian forces, in particular Viktor Orbán, in the context of common European security, he said that Orbán becomes important when important political forces give him strength.
"Hungary is a country that matters, but it does not have military weight. I do not talk to him because he does not want to, but I have contacts with Robert Fico. I believe that Orbán will lose the election, and then we will be able to restore normal relations with Hungary, also because Hungarian people are not pro-Russian," he said.
Zelenskyy also said it is unacceptable to buy energy resources from Russia.
"Putin will immediately use new financial revenues to purchase weapons that he will use against Ukraine," he noted.
The president also once again commented on the demand to restore transportation of Russian oil via the Druzhba oil pipeline.
"Russians bombed Druzhba several times and then attacked our technicians who were repairing it. Why the hell did Orbán not accuse Russians of bombing? I explained it to Fico: the pipeline is destroyed, to repair it we need a ceasefire, and this needs to be clearly explained to Putin," he added.
Notably, Orbán and members of his government have repeatedly accused Ukraine of interfering in Hungarian elections in favour of the opposition Tisza party, which, according to polls, has a chance to defeat Orbán's party in an election in April.
Hungary's Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said that the absence of oil transportation via the Druzhba oil pipeline is an "attack" on Hungary carried out by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The Hungarian minister said the "Berlin-Brussels-Kyiv axis" wants to bring the price of petrol to HUF 1,000 (EUR 2.60) in Hungary before elections.
"It is the Berlin-Brussels-Kyiv axis that took this decision in the interests of the Tisza party to help it come to power," he said.
Zelenskyy previously rebuked leaders of Hungary and Slovakia for communicating with Ukraine purely pragmatically about a problem with the Druzhba oil pipeline after Russian strikes, not wanting to acknowledge what this transit and repair of the pipeline costs Ukraine.