"Baseless confrontation" and "nothing good": Sybyga reacted to Madyar's walkout

A memorandum between Naftogaz and Mol Nyrt had already been signed. The Hungarian prime minister intervened in pragmatic business interaction.

Yesterday, Hungary's prime minister, Peter Magyar, stated that his country did not accept Ukraine's invitation to join the new international format C8, which will involve cooperation among Carpathian-region states, and does not plan to establish a joint strategic fuel reserve, even though Naftogaz and Hungarian Mol Nyrt signed a corresponding memorandum during the Carpathian Eight summit. In response, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andriy Zibiga compared his decision to the policy of former prime minister Viktor Orban.

"We are surprised by the unfounded confrontational statements of the prime minister of Hungary toward Ukraine, — noted Zibiga. — The Carpathian Integration Initiative is aimed at the development of our entire region, promoting welfare, interconnectedness, and the implementation of mutually beneficial projects in the eight Carpathian countries."

The head of the Foreign Ministry noted that Kyiv is unaware of Budapest's reasons for refusal. He called the development of statements by the local prime minister, which call into question direct, pragmatic, and mutually beneficial cooperation between the energy companies of the countries, who have already agreed, no less strange.

"When politics interferes in pragmatic business interaction, nothing good comes of it," Zibiga stated.

As a reminder, 18 in September, President Volodymyr Zelensky presented a new international format — the Carpathian Eight. It aims to unite the European Union with the regional states: Romania, Serbia, Poland, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Austria, and Hungary. Within the framework of this new format, these countries will interact in security, energy, logistics, cross-border economic cooperation, and substantial support for citizens. Subsequently, the minister for recovery, infrastructure, and transport, Mykola Kalashnik, announced the creation of the "Rail Coalition" within this format. Its mission will be to assist Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ), including locomotive modernization, financing, energy resilience, and modernization.

Former ambassador Valeriy Chaly later noted that the main thing in the work of C8 is for the format not to remain merely at the level of statements. According to him, it is important for Ukraine to demonstrate that it is an initiator, and better — a leader, not just a beggar for EU money.