Kyiv criticizes Hungary after its refusal to join the Carpathian 8 format: “We are surprised by the Hungarian prime minister’s unnecessarily confrontational statements toward Ukraine”

Ukraine criticized Hungary on Monday for refusing to participate in the “Carpathian 8” summit, organized over the weekend by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Ivano-Frankivsk region, accusing Budapest of “unnecessarily confrontational” statements and of continuing a policy of obstructionism.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Romanian President Nicușor Dan, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, and representatives of the Czech Republic, Austria, and Slovakia attended the meeting. Hungary sent a representative of its embassy in Kyiv, but he did not appear in the official photograph and did not participate in the discussions.

Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Magyar argued that Budapest had a valid reason not to attend and stated that such events would be announced by his government.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said that the policies associated with former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán continue and warned that “Orbanism” benefits neither Hungary nor the region.

Bilateral relations remain tense due to the blocking of negotiations on Ukraine’s accession to the European Union, amid the dispute over the rights of the Hungarian minority. A meeting between Zelenskyy and Magyar, discussed since spring, has not been scheduled.

A new conflict emerged after the agreement between Naftogaz and the Hungarian company MOL to build oil storage facilities in Hungary. Magyar rejected the project and asked MOL to consult the government, given that the state owns 25% of the shares. Kyiv warned that political involvement in energy cooperation could affect relations between the two countries.