Orbán: We are facing an "external attack"

The fire broke out last Monday evening at the Danube refinery in Százhalombatta, south of the Hungarian capital, Budapest. Operated by the Hungarian energy company MOL, it is the country’s largest refinery and primarily processes crude oil from Russia.

“The investigation is in full swing,” Orbán wrote on social media.

“We still do not know whether it was an accident, a malfunction, or an external attack.”

His statements regarding possible sabotage contradict MOL, which said last week that there is no evidence of an attack.

“The Polish foreign minister advised Ukrainians to blow up the Druzhba pipeline. Let’s hope that was not the case,” Orbán added.

He was apparently referring to comments made last week on social media by Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski, who expressed hope that Kyiv would “finally succeed in destroying” the strategically important pipeline that supplies Hungary with Russian oil.

Budapest has been criticized by Ukraine and its allies for continuing to import Russian oil during Moscow’s war, even as most of the EU has largely moved away from Kremlin energy.

The Hungarian leader argued that Budapest has no choice but to rely on Russia for cheap oil and gas due to its landlocked geography, insisting that consumer prices would otherwise skyrocket, and even pledging to bypass U.S. sanctions on Russian oil companies. This is despite neighboring Croatia insisting that it could supply Budapest’s energy needs via its own pipeline.

On Thursday, Orbán added that he had instructed his government to inform MOL not to raise energy prices for consumers in response to the refinery fire.