Ukraine updates: Hungary threatens gas stop amid oil dispute

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Wednesday said that Russia remained in contact with the US on the talks with Ukraine and that Moscow hoped Wasington would continue its mediation efforts. 

"Moscow continued to maintain contact with the Americans through existing channels," Peskov said. "We are receiving updates on the situation. We welcome the continued efforts by the American side to create the necessary conditions for reaching a settlement in the Ukrainian issue." 

Peskov asserted that Russia remained open for dialogue.

According to a report in the Vedemosti newspaper, a delegation of Russian lawmakers was expected to visit the US in the near future. Asked to comment on the report, Peskov said he welcomed all forms of dialogue with Washington and that such a visit, if one were to take place, would be in the interests of both sides. 

The long-running attempts to broker talks and potentially a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, which already appeared to be bearing few to no fruits, have slowed to a crawl this month amid the US-Israeli attacks on Iran.

Meetings did however take place over the weekend after a pause lasting weeks. 

The Tripoli-based Government of National Unity (GNU) says the Libyan Coast Guard has begun towing away a damaged liquefied natural gas tanker that has been drifting uncrewed for weeks. 

Several Mediterranean countries had warned in a letter to the European Commission that the stricken vessel posed "an imminent and serious risk of a major ecological disaster." 

Russia's Transport Ministry says the Russian-flagged Arctic Metagaz was hit by Ukrainian naval drones in early March. It was carrying LNG from the Arctic port of Murmansk. Moscow alleged the drones launched from Libya, with neither Kyiv nor Tripoli commenting on the claims.

Drifting with no crew aboard, it eventually reached waters near the shores of the western Libyan port of Zuwara. 

Tripoli's GNU posted a video showing a frigate towing the tanker with a thick rope. 

"We assure our people ​throughout Libya in ‌general, and the western coastal areas in particular, especially Zuwara and Sabratha, that the relevant authorities ​are making every ⁠effort to deal with the situation," a senior Coast Guard commander Omar Mohamed Omar Al-Tuwari said. 

The authorities have not yet disclosed where they intend to tow the vessel.

Drones entered Estonian and Latvian territory and crashed, local authorities said on Wednesday, adding that investigations had begun. 

Military and emergency services were on site to collect and examine debris, and there was not danger to the public, statements from Riga and Tallinn said. 

They were working to determine whether the drones, which entered from Russia or Belarus, were Russian or Ukrainian. The incidents came as Ukraine was attacking Russian targets in the Gulf of Finland. 

In Estonia, the drone struck a chimney at the Auvere power station in Ida-Virumaa County, but caused no serious damage. In Latvia, radar detected an unidentified flying object crossing the Latvian border at 2:19 am (0019 GMT), a military spokesman said on television.

Lithuania reported that a similar incident earlier in the week involved a Ukrainian drone that had probably been sent off course and crashed as a result of Russian counter-drone defenses. 

"In the past 48 hours, drones have crashed in the territories of all three Baltic states: a clear indication that Russia’s war against Ukraine is generating wider regional risk," Lithuania's Defense Ministry said online. "We will respond by strengthening readiness and accelerating air defence. We must all remain vigilant."

Russia's Defense Ministry said on Wednesday that air defenses had intercepted a total of 398 drones overnight across 13 regions as well as the annexed Ukrainian Crimean peninsula. 

State news agency TASS called it the largest overnight attack from Ukraine since the full-scale invasion of 2022. 

This came a day after Russia fired almost 1,000 drones and 34 missiles at Ukraine over a 24-hour period on Tuesday, unusually extending its overnight barrage well into daylight hours. 

Two of the Russian sites targeted by Ukraine were the Balitc oil export terminals of Primorsk and Ust-Luga. 

Reuters news agency cited sources as saying that the facilities had suspended crude oil and oil products loadings on Wednesday after the attacks. The Helsingin Sanomat newspaper reported a fire and plumes of black smoke at the Ust-Luga facility that were visible from the other side of the Gulf of Finland. 

The two sites were forced to suspend oil deliveries on Sunday amid attacks, and Primorsk was targeted earlier in the week. 

Ukrainian shelling overnight also caused power cuts affecting around 450,000 people in and around the Russian border city of Belgorod, according to a statement by Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov on Telegram. 

Meanwhile, in Ukraine, power was disrupted for some 150,000 households in and around the northern city of Chernihiv following Russia's earlier bombardment. 

Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said that Hungary will start to halt natural gas deliveries to Ukraine until Russian crude oil again flows through Ukraine via the Druzhba pipeline, which Ukraine says sustained damage in a Russian drone strike in January. 

Landlocked Hungary and Slovakia, which were granted an exemption to EU sanctions on Russian oil because of their reliance, blame Ukraine for the outage, questioning whether the pipeline is actually out of action. 

The already-tense issue has gained additional urgency amid the oil price shock triggered by the attacks on Iran and the conflict in the wider Gulf region. 

"We are gradually halting gas deliveries from Hungary to Ukraine, and will store the gas that remains with us in Hungary," Orban said in a video posted on Facebook. 

According to data on Hungarian pipeline operator FGSZ's website, gas shipments were continuing on Wednesday morning. 

Last week, EU leaders failed to convince Orban, who faces a difficult general election in early April, to lift his blockade on a €90-billion (roughly $105 billion) loan package for Ukraine. Orban and Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico also tied this issue to Druzhba pipeline deliveries. 

EU experts are in Ukraine helping to assess the condition of the pipeline and fund repairs. According to indications from Kyiv, the resumption of oil deliveries could take weeks yet. 

Hello and welcome to our updates related to Russia's invasion of Ukraine on March 25, 2026. 

Both sides are reporting intensifying drone attacks this week, often targeting energy infrastructure, as the war in Iran drives oil and gas prices up. Tens of thousands were struggling with disruptions to power supplies on either side of the border early on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban continues to try to use tensions over Ukraine as leverage in his difficult domestic election campaign, now threatening to halt gas supplies to Ukraine unless Russian oil deliveries restart. 

And Baltic countries are investigating after more drones entered their airspace and crashed.