Ukraine’s attempt to build a new regional framework around security, energy, logistics and cross-border economic cooperation has run into an immediate obstacle in Hungary, whose government has rejected both membership of the Carpathian Eight and a proposed arrangement to store Ukrainian fuel on its territory.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy formally launched the Carpathian Eight at Bukovel on 18 September. Ukraine presented Ukraine, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Czechia, Austria and Serbia as proposed members, alongside the European Union. The inaugural summit ran from 18–20 September.
Kyiv listed Hungary as a participant although Budapest had apparently never formally agreed to join. Péter Magyar, Hungary’s prime minister, mocked the suggestion that a country could be made a member without consenting, comparing it to naming someone for a village football team and then telling him to bring the ball.
In parliament on 21 September, Magyar said Hungary had received an invitation and had declined it 'for good reasons.' The dispute quickly became entangled with a separate memorandum signed at the summit by Naftogaz, Ukraine’s energy company, and Hungary’s MOL.
The memorandum concerned petroleum-product storage facilities in Hungary near the shared border. Naftogaz presented the proposal as a means of keeping strategic fuel reserves beyond the reach of Russian strikes. The terms of the memorandum and any timetable for implementation have not been set out.
Magyar said MOL had held talks without government approval. He ruled out any facility on Hungarian territory, citing security concerns. Anita Orbán, the Hungarian foreign minister, later confirmed the government’s position that no strategic facilities for Ukrainian fuel and petroleum products would be established in Hungary under the current administration.
Andrii Sybiha, Ukraine’s foreign minister, responded sharply after Magyar told parliament that Hungary was outside the Carpathian Eight. Sybiha said Kyiv was 'surprised' by what he described as 'unnecessarily confrontational statements.'
He also criticised comments casting doubt on the energy-company memorandum. 'Whenever politics interferes with pragmatic business, nothing good comes of it,' Sybiha said. He argued that 'Orbanism' and policies of obstructionism and isolationism appeared to persist after Viktor Orbán left office.
Viktor Orbán was defeated in April 2026 and replaced by Magyar, with the government changing in Hungary since May. The new administration has taken a more measured approach to Ukraine while maintaining Hungary’s purchases of Russian oil and gas. More than 90 per cent of Hungary’s oil and gas imports currently come from Russia, according to figures cited by S&P Global and reported by Reuters.
The disagreement therefore brings energy security into a relationship already shaped by Hungary’s concerns about the Hungarian minority in Zakarpattia. Vsevolod Chentsov, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration, is overseeing a draft law on education rights for the minority, based on a June agreement between the two countries.
Orbán said positive changes on minority rights in Zakarpattia could be expected no later than October, when the draft law is due to be submitted to the Ukrainian parliament. The talks on education are proceeding separately from the dispute over fuel storage and the regional initiative.
Budapest has sought to lower the immediate diplomatic temperature. Orbán said the question of the Carpathian Eight had been resolved and that Hungary remained open to regional initiatives once their practical value had been established. She did not exclude Hungary joining the format in future.
On 25 September, the Hungarian Foreign Ministry said recent misunderstandings with Kyiv had been cleared up and that Hungary was open to new regional cooperation initiatives. The statement left unchanged the government’s rejection of the proposed fuel-storage facility.
For Ukraine, the disagreement tests the practical limits of a forum intended to deepen cooperation with neighbouring states while it pursues European Union accession. Almost one hundred business projects worth approximately €40 billion were presented in connection with the inaugural summit. The Ukrainian government said the meeting produced more than €1 billion in agreements, although Hungary’s absence from the format and its refusal to host fuel reserves underline the unresolved bilateral tensions.
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