Polish foreign minister Radosław Sikorski has said he hopes that Ukrainian forces succeed in destroying an oil pipeline that supplies Hungary with Russian oil.
In a heated exchange with his Hungarian counterpart Peter Szijjarto on social media yesterday, he said: “Peter, I am proud of the Polish court which ruled that sabotaging an invader is no crime.
“Moreover, I hope your brave compatriot, Major Magyar, finally succeeds in knocking out the oil pipeline that feeds Putin’s war machine and you get your oil via Croatia.”
Peter, I am proud of the Polish court which ruled that sabotaging an invader is no crime.
Moreover, I hope your brave compatriot, Major Magyar, finally succeeds in knocking out the oil pipeline that feeds Putin's war machine and you get your oil via Croatia.— Radosław Sikorski 🇵🇱🇪🇺 (@sikorskiradek) October 22, 2025
Sikorski was referring major Robert Browdy, known as “Magyar”, a Ukrainian special services (SBS) commander of Hungarian minority extraction. He has been banned from entering Hungary after he was reported to have organised attacks on the Russian Druzhba oil pipeline supplying Hungary.
Balazs Orbán, chief political adviser to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán (no relation), reacted by accusing Sikorski of war hysteria and of harming Polish-Hungarian relations.
“This is the darkest depth of war hysteria. While Sikorski may strive to nullify Polish-Hungarian relations, I would like to remind him that our nations share a historical friendship, and we are allied countries,” he wrote on X yesterday.
‼️ Outrageous: The Polish FM is hoping that the Ukrainians will be able to blow up the Druzhba oil pipeline, which ensures 🇭🇺 #Hungary's energy supply. This is the darkest depth of war hysteria. While @sikorskiradek may strive to nullify Polish-Hungarian relations, I would like… https://t.co/2rRbwkIH0O
— Balázs Orbán (@BalazsOrban_HU) October 22, 2025
The exchange between Sikorski and Szijjarto had started with Sikorski stating he was proud of the court decision earlier in October to set free a Ukrainian who had been detained on an arrest warrant issued by Germany. He was held for his alleged role in destroying the Nord Stream gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea.
“I am proud of an independent court’s decision that decided that acts of sabotage against an invader are not a crime,” argued Sikorski.
Szijjarto reacted to that by criticising the decision.
“Is Radosław Sikorski, when he talks of an ‘independent’ court, speaking of a court which on the orders of Prime Minister Donald Tusk refused to extradite a terrorist who blew up Nord Stream?” he wrote. He was alluding to the fact that Tusk had publicly said he felt any extradition of the accused Ukrainian was “not in Poland’s national interest”.
Sikorski and Hungary have also been at odds this month over the postponed Budapest summit on the Ukraine war between the Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump.
Poland’s foreign minister warned the Russians that he could not guarantee Putin’s safe passage through Poland’s airspace.
Relations between Poland and Hungary soured when the two countries took different paths over the war in Ukraine, with PM Orbán arguing for peace initiatives and the Poles backing Ukraine.
They deteriorated further after the arrival of the centre-left Tusk government in 2023, reaching a nadir when Hungary granted asylum to a former Conservative (PiS) government official accused by the present government of an abuse of power.
