Hungary has called for the lifting of sanctions on Russian oil and gas imports, as Prime Minister Viktor Orban warned that Europe faces a potential energy crisis and ordered military protection for a key pipeline following an alleged sabotage attempt.

Speaking during a visit to a gas pipeline facility near the Serbian border, Orban said Hungary was “firmly advocating” an end to restrictions on Russian energy, citing rising geopolitical risks linked to tensions involving Iran. “The Hungarian position is clear: we must end sanctions against Russian energy,” he said, according to TASS on April 6.

Orban added that “Europe is nearing an extremely serious energy crisis, and the coming days will be critical”, warning that “competition for energy resources could resemble the scramble we saw with vaccines during the coronavirus pandemic”.

The visit came after what Hungarian authorities described as an attempted terrorist attack on the Serbian section of the TurkStream pipeline, which supplies Russian gas to Hungary and Slovakia. The authorities found a package of explosives they claimed was intended to destroy the pipeline. In response, Orban ordered the entire 250km Hungarian stretch of the pipeline to be placed under military protection.

“Currently, Hungary’s energy supplies are secure, but the pipeline must be protected,” Orban said. He added that “the situation is extremely serious” and warned that “if this pipeline were to be cut, Hungary’s economy would come to a standstill”.

The TurkStream pipeline is the only one of the trident of gas pipelines carrying gas from Russia to Europe that is still working. The Nord Stream pipeline was destroyed by an explosion in 2022 by Ukrainian partisans, according to several investigations.

The Druzhba pipeline, that runs through the middle of Europe, was disabled in a drone strike at the end of January and Kyiv has been dragging its heels on repairs to the frustration of Budapest that has blocked the release of the proposed €90bn EU loan. “No oil, no money,” Orban declared at the end of last month.

TurkStream is the only surviving link between the Russian oil and gas fields and Europe and a key source of energy for the Central European states of Hungary and Slovakia as well as Turkey, which is not participating in the energy sanctions on Russia.

While no one is blaming Ukraine for the attempt to blow up the TurkStream pipeline, several commentators have suggested it as a possibility. Since last summer, Kyiv has launched repeated attacks on Russian refineries in an attempt to cut the Kremlin off from its oil and gas export revenues. More recently, Kyiv has launched persistent drone attacks on Russia’s two main oil export terminals in the Baltics – Primorsk and Ust-Luga, as well as a string of large refineries that is disrupting Russia’s oil export at a time when prices have spiked due to the Iran war.

The attacks have had a limited effect as the terminals are reportedly still operating, albeit at reduced levels, and the attacks have pushed Russian oil prices even higher, offsetting the reduced flow; Russia’s prime Urals blend is currently trading at a $10 premium to the benchmark Brent oil at around $123 per barrel – its highest level in years.

Hungary remains one of the European Union’s most dependent countries on Russian energy. According to data from the International Energy Agency and European Commission, Russian gas accounted for roughly 80% of Hungary’s total gas imports in 2023, while more than 60% of its oil imports originated from Russia, largely via the Druzhba pipeline. By contrast, the EU as a whole reduced Russian gas imports from about 40% of total supply in 2021 to below 15% in 2023, replacing volumes with liquefied natural gas shipments from the US and Qatar.

Benchmark European gas prices, measured at the Dutch TTF hub, peaked at more than €300 per megawatt hour in 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but have since stabilised in a range of €25–€40 per megawatt hour in 2025 amid weaker demand and improved storage levels, according to Financial Times reporting. Since the war in Iran started a month ago, TTF gas prices rose to €70/MWh after Iran bombed the Ras Laffan LNG plant in Qatar, but have since fallen back to €49/MWh as of the time of writing.

Analysts have warned that prices remain vulnerable to supply disruptions, particularly involving pipeline infrastructure or escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East. The potential destruction of Iran’s electricity generation capacity on “Power Plant Day” on April 7 could see the war escalate dramatically as Tehran has vowed to seek in-kind retribution if the White House follows through on its threat.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, who accompanied Orban, said investigations by Serbian authorities were ongoing and it was too early to identify those responsible for the attempted attack.

Szijjarto also accused Ukraine of seeking to curtail Russian energy flows into Europe. “The Ukrainians aim to completely exclude Russian gas and oil from Europe,” he said, adding that “political actions, as well as terrorist attacks, have been undertaken to achieve this goal”. He cited the explosion of the Nord Stream pipeline as “the first such act”.

European policymakers hope to ban imports of Russian gas completely by January 1, but those plans have been put off for now as the EU faces a growing gas crisis that will only be exacerbated by the unfolding war in the Middle East. The bloc has also committed to ending Russian fossil fuel imports before 2030, while expanding renewable energy capacity and LNG infrastructure.

The Nord Stream explosions in 2022 remain under investigation by European authorities. Western officials have not reached a definitive public conclusion on responsibility, and analysts have cautioned against attributing blame without verified evidence, as reported by Reuters.