Hungary bans Ukrainian commander who led attack on Friendship oil pipeline from entering Hungary and Schengen area

The Hungarian government has banned the commander of the Ukrainian military unit that carried out the latest attack on the Friendship (Druzhba) oil pipeline from Hungary and the Schengen area, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó announced in a video published on Thursday morning.

Update at 12:12 on Thursday:

The name of the Ukrainian commander whose ban from Hungary and the Schengen area Szijjártó announced earlier is Robert Bovdi, Balázs Orbán, the Prime Minister's political director, confirmed to 444.

444 recalls that Robert Brovdi was appointed as the commander of the Ukrainian army's drone forces this summer. He had previously been awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine and the Order of the Golden Star. His call sign is Magyar, a reference to his Hungarian roots in the Transcarpathian region, home to nearly 150 thousand ethnic Hungarians.

Brovdi is active on social media, and his posts have repeatedly featured the slogan "Ruszkik haza!" (Russians go home!). The name of his unit is also revealing: Magyarok Madarai (The Hungarians' Birds).

The Hungarian Foreign Minister justified the ban by arguing that the latest attack on the oil pipeline was so serious and the repairs took so long that Hungary almost had to tap into its emergency reserves. According to Szijjártó, Ukraine is causing more damage to Hungary than to Russia with such attacks on the pipeline. The minister also said that these attacks violate Hungary's sovereignty and as such, cannot be left without consequences.

Although in the video, Szijjártó repeatedly stressed that they view the attack on the pipeline as extremely serious, he had never described the recent Russian missile attack on Mukachevo (a Ukrainian town near the Hungarian border with a significant Hungarian minority) in such terms. The Hungarian government – as opposed to the current announcement – never responded to the attack with any retaliatory measures either.

Péter Szijjártó first called on Ukraine to stop jeopardising Hungary's energy supply and to end its attacks on energy supply routes to Hungary on 13 August. As we later reported, the pipeline had been repaired and oil was flowing again, but then another attack occurred. In response to this, Hungary has since involved Slovakia and the United States in its protest against Ukraine.