00:00Well, let's get the latest. We're going to talk to our international affairs editor, Philip Terrell, who joins me here
00:04on Tech.
00:04Good to have you with us, Philip. Explain a little bit more then about exactly what this row is about,
00:08Ken.
00:09Right, well, Stuart, this is the Druzhba pipeline. Now, Druzhba means the friendship pipeline,
00:14but there's not much friendship at the moment between Hungary and Ukraine over this pipeline,
00:20basically because Hungary has been accusing the Ukrainians of failing to repair the pipeline,
00:25which has been damaged as a result of airstrikes by the Russians.
00:29This pipeline which transports vast amounts of oil to Hungary and is vital for their energy output.
00:36Now, it's the world's longest pipeline. It entered service back in 1964.
00:43It is 4000 kilometres long and it stretches all the way from Western Russia into Europe, to Germany, to Hungary,
00:51and even as far as Croatia.
00:52Now, the part which is being scrutinised by the Hungarians is the part that's flashing in this map here,
00:59which is bringing the oil into Hungary and then on to Croatia, the Hungarian authorities saying,
01:05well, that oil has been drying up as a result of that damage that was inflicted on the pipeline.
01:10And they say that Ukraine has not been doing enough to repair it and to make sure those oil supplies
01:17continue to flow.
01:18Now, Slovakia and Hungary are the only two EU countries that are still allowed to import Russian oil as a
01:26result of the embargo on that,
01:27which was imposed by the EU following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
01:32To counterbalance this, Viktor Orban has been saying basically that he's going to stop gas supplies because Hungary is a
01:41major exporter of gas to Ukraine.
01:42Ukraine is going to stop gas supplies to Ukraine until that pipeline is secure.
01:48But there are analysts in Hungary who say, well, that is probably not a good move by the Hungarian authorities
01:53because it will deny revenue to Hungary,
01:55which is important to the country as a result of exporting those gas supplies, those big gas supplies,
02:01up from 2.5 to 14 percent in the 10 months to the end of 2025.
02:08More information here about that Drozba pipeline.
02:11And so it's a standoff which comes hot on the heels of another move by Viktor Orban,
02:18the Hungarian prime minister, to veto a European loan of 90 billion euros to Ukraine,
02:24all part of what the EU sees as Viktor Orban's mostly pro-Russian stance in the war in Ukraine.
02:32And all of this coming just a few days before the Hungarian elections are due to take place on the
02:3612th of April.
02:38And in which Viktor Orban's Fidesz party is not doing so well in the polls against his main opposition rival,
02:45who is Peter Magyar, who runs the Respect and Freedom Party.
02:50It comes, of course, as the fighting is continuing as well, Philip, Russia continuing to send drones into Ukraine.
02:56One of it set fire to a church, didn't it, Lviv, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, in fact.
03:01Well, we've seen an increase in drone activity in Ukraine over the past few days, 948 drones.
03:06That was the total number that were fired into Ukraine on Tuesday.
03:11This is the largest number of drones fired into the country in one go since the start of the Ukraine
03:18war back in 2022.
03:20And also during daylight hours caught fire to this church, which is the 17th century St. Andrew's Church,
03:29part of the Bernadine Monastery in Lviv, which is the western most important city in Ukraine, far away from the
03:37front line.
03:38And the defence minister in Ukraine has basically accused the Russians of brutal violations of international law and saying that
03:47attacking World Heritage Sites like this,
03:49which have been registered by UNESCO, should be met with accountability by the Russian Federation.
03:55Meanwhile, some Ukrainian drones, they fall into neighbouring Latvia and Estonia, haven't they?
04:00What's been the reaction?
04:01So as drone attacks have stepped up from the Russians, there have been increased drone attacks by the Ukrainians.
04:07Now, the Ukrainians have been trying to pinpoint areas where they believe Russia is most vulnerable.
04:13That's to say power stations certainly further north along the border between Latvia and Estonia.
04:21Now, some of those drones have strayed into those two countries.
04:25This is basically because drones can miss their targets when the drone jamming systems interfere with the GPS signal.
04:35That's to say that the jamming trying to stop the drone from hitting the ground can stop the GPS where
04:40the drone is directed towards a particular target
04:42and therefore it can go off target and land somewhere else.
04:45Well, the reaction from both those countries has been it's not the fault of Ukraine, it's the fault of the
04:50Russians,
04:50even if it's a Ukrainian drone that lands where we live, basically because Russia was the one that invaded Ukraine
04:57to begin with.
04:58Now, all of this is happening at the same time as a G7 meeting in Paris today between the G7
05:04foreign ministers.
05:05There is worry that the Americans are going to try to force Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian president,
05:12to sign a deal with Russia, which would be unfavorable for Ukraine because Donald Trump wants to get this sewn
05:20up before the midterm elections in November.
05:22He's struggling in the opinion polls due to the war in Iran right now.
05:25I think there's going to be a lot of movement on the part of the other G7 members, Britain, the
05:30US, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan,
05:33and to try to push Marco Rubio, the US Secretary of State, will be taking part in those talks to
05:38be a little bit less insistent on that measure,
05:41saying that basically it is unacceptable to push Ukraine to sign a deal, which would be unfavorable to Kiev in
05:48the long term.
05:49Philip, I'm the International Affairs Editor here on France 24.
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