BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Wednesday ordered extra security at critical energy infrastructure sites after claiming Ukraine was attempting to disrupt Hungary’s energy system.
Budapest has recently accused Kyiv of deliberately holding back Russian oil deliveries through the Druzhba pipeline, which crosses Ukraine’s territory. Ukrainian officials have denied the allegations, saying the pipeline, which feeds refineries in Hungary and Slovakia, was hit in a Russian drone attack.
Orbán has in recent weeks launched an aggressive anti-Ukraine campaign ahead of elections in April which will likely be the toughest he's faced in his 16 years in power. He has cast the neighboring country as a grave threat to Hungary's security, and himself as the only guarantor of its safety.
In a video posted to social media, Orbán, who maintains the closest relationship with the Kremlin of any European Union leader, said the Ukrainian government was using “an oil blockade” to exert pressure on Hungary and that Hungarian national security services showed Ukraine was “preparing further actions to disrupt the operation of Hungary’s energy system.” He didn’t provide details or evidence for his claims.
“We will deploy soldiers and the necessary equipment to repel attacks near key energy facilities,” Orbán said. “The police will patrol with increased forces around designated power plants, distribution stations and control centers.”
Nearly every country in Europe has significantly reduced or entirely ceased Russian energy imports since Moscow launched its war in Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022. Yet Hungary and Slovakia, both EU and NATO members, have maintained and even increased supplies of Russian oil and gas, and received a temporary exemption from an EU policy prohibiting imports of Russian oil.
On Sunday, Hungary threatened to block a major, 90-billion euro ($106 billion) EU loan for Kyiv, and vetoed a new round of EU sanctions against Russia on Monday. Orbán has vowed to block any other EU measures to assist Ukraine until oil shipments resume.
Druzhba has been out of commission since Jan. 27. Repairs are hazardous and the pipeline can only operate reliably if Russia stops targeting energy infrastructure, according to Ukrainian officials.
Orbán also ordered Wednesday a ban on drone operations in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County, which borders Ukraine.
Orban has repeatedly accused Ukraine of “blackmail" to force him to give up his anti-Ukrainian positions, and of seeking to drive up energy prices in Hungary just weeks before a pivotal election.
Orbán, who retook office in 2010, faces the strongest challenge to his power in an election set for April 12. The EU’s longest-serving leader and his right-wing Fidesz party are trailing in most independent polls to an upstart center-right challenger, Péter Magyar.
His party has pushed the message that if it loses the election, the Tisza party will drag the country into the war in Ukraine, bankrupting Hungary and getting its youth killed on the front lines.
Associated Press writer Samya Kullab in Kyiv, Ukraine contributed to this report.
Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban speaks during a news conference with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Budapest, Hungary, Monday, Feb. 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon, Pool)
NEW YORK (AP) — Snowplows cleared the way for ambulances and fire trucks in Rhode Island. New York City workers geared up to dump massive basins of warm water on piles of snow and ice. And in Boston, officials tried to clear sidewalks coated in packed snow that cut off access for people using wheelchairs.
The gigantic snowstorm this week across the Northeast U.S. dropped piles of powder from Maryland to Maine and left cities on Wednesday scrambling to clear towering heaps that were not showing signs of melting anytime soon.
By Tuesday evening, New York City had spread 143 million pounds (65 million kilograms) of salt, according to Mayor Zohran Mamdani, and signed up at least 3,500 people as emergency shovelers. The $30-per-hour shifts involve clearing snow across public streets and bus stops.
But with another storm expected Wednesday, there was plenty more work left to do, especially for the many people with disabilities.
Jeff Peters, spokesperson for the Center for Independence of the Disabled, New York, described parts of the city as impassable islands.
“You’ll find a portion of a sidewalk that is clear, and then there’s maybe a 6-inch (15-cm) pathway that can only be walked with one foot in front of the other and no room for a stroller, rollator, walker or crutches,” Peters said. “Then you get to the corner and not only is it unshoveled, but you have basically a glacier at the end of it.”
Tina Guenette, who uses a motorized wheelchair, had to shovel out her yard this week after more than 33 inches (84 centimeters) fell in Harrisville, Rhode Island, a town about 17 miles (27 kilometers) northwest of Providence.
“I really have no choice if my service dog wants to go outside,” Guenette said Tuesday. Harrisville has a volunteer snow-shoveling program, but it hasn't had volunteers for the last few years, she said.
The National Weather Service warned another storm originating in the Great Lakes could push into the Northeast on Wednesday. The clipper storm brings the prospect of a combination of rain and some snow, though it’s not forecast to be nearly as severe.
NYC Emergency Management warned Wednesday morning commuters that the forecast light snow and freezing temperatures could bring slick roads and sidewalks as well as black ice.
Monday’s storm blanketed the region with snow, canceled flights, disrupted transit, downed power lines and killed at least one person. More than 3 feet (0.9 meters) fell in Rhode Island — surpassing snow totals from the historic Blizzard of 1978 that struck the Northeast, the National Weather Service said.
Meteorologist Ryan Maue, former chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, said if all of the snow that fell from Maryland to Maine fell just on Manhattan, the snow would tower over a mile high.
In Newport, Rhode Island, Joseph Boutros, 21, was found unconscious inside a vehicle covered in snow Monday night, the city’s police department said in a statement. The Salve Regina University student was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead due to carbon monoxide poisoning, police said.
Some large school districts moved back to in-person classes on Wednesday, including Philadelphia, which had switched to online learning during the first two days of the week.
In New York City, more than 900,000 students in the nation’s largest public school system had a regular day Tuesday. Many students and their caregivers scrambled over mountainous snow banks and dodged salt spreaders during the morning drop-off.
Power had returned for many of the hundreds of thousands who had lost electricity in Massachusetts, New Jersey, Delaware and Rhode Island. But about 173,000 customers in Massachusetts were still without power early Wednesday.
Thousands of flights in and out of the U.S. have been canceled in recent days. By Wednesday, the disruptions seemed to be subsiding, with only around 150 grounded, according to the flight tracking website FlightAware.
When Jamie Meyers' flight landed in New York from Buenos Aires, Argentina, Tuesday evening, the cabin full of relieved passengers burst into applause. The Manhattan resident was supposed to arrive home Sunday but faced a cancellation and significant delay.
The weather service referred to Monday’s storm as a “classic bomb cyclone/nor’easter off the Northeast coast.” A bomb cyclone happens when a storm’s pressure falls by a certain amount within a 24-hour period.
Golden reported from Seattle and Boone reported from Boise, Idaho. Associated Press writers Jennifer Peltz, Michael R. Sisak and Philip Marcelo in New York; Mike Catalini in Morrisville, Pennsylvania; Mark Scolforo in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania; Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; and Audrey McAvoy in Honolulu contributed.
A Brooklyn Bridge Park worker clears snow from a sidewalk near the park, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, left, lends a hand shoveling snow from around a fire hydrant, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026, in South Boston. (AP Photo/Sophie Park)
A man walks his dogs on the Brooklyn Heights Promenade, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
A woman pushes a stroller through plowed snow, Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
A man carries his daughter over a snowbank outside a day care center in the Brooklyn borough of New York, on Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Drew Callister)
Matt Bableto, left, snowblows his driveway after a winter storm dumped about three feet of snow across the region, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026, in Cranston, R.I. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
People opt to walk in the middle of the street over snowy sidewalks after a snowstorm, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026, in South Boston. (AP Photo/Sophie Park)
Children stand outside the doors of Parkside Preparatory Academy a day after a snowstorm in the borough of Brooklyn, New York, on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026. (AP Photo/Drew Callister)
A worker clears snow outside the Empire Stores building in Brooklyn Bridge Park, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)
A man shovels snow to take out his car parked in Central Park a day after a winter storm on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)
Key Lim, 55, of Quincy, removes snow from a sidewalk lined with trash bags in front of the laundromat that he manages on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026, in Boston. (AP Photo/Sophie Park)
A woman clears snow from a walk outside a preschool, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)
A woman carries a child over piles of plowed snow as she walks a girl to school, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)
A man walks a boy to school, Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2026, in New York. (AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)
