BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary will try to resolve a dispute with Ukraine over the transfer of Russian oil by September to avert a potential energy crisis, a statement of support for the Hungarian prime minister said. Victor Orban said on Friday,
Orban’s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyás, claimed that Kiev was “blackmailing” Budapest by blocking the transfer of Russian crude oil through its territory.
Ukraine last month adopted sanctions against Lukoil, Russia’s largest non-state company. Hungary receives most of its crude oil from Russia via the Druzhba or “Friendship” pipeline that runs through Belarus and Ukraine to Central Europe, from which it receives about half from Lukoil.
The move angered officials in Slovakia and Hungary, who argued the blocked supply would jeopardize their energy security. The two countries threatened legal action against Kiev unless Lukoil resumed crude deliveries.
On Friday, Orbán’s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyás, told a news conference that Ukraine was “inexplicably blackmailing Hungary and Slovakia by cutting off oil supplies.” He suggested the blockade of Lukoil crude was a response to the two Central European countries’ “pro-peace stance.”
Orbán, seen as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest partner in the European Union, has broken with other EU leaders by refusing to supply Ukraine with weapons to defend itself against Russia’s full-scale invasion. He has routinely delayed, watered down or blocked attempts to send financial aid to Kiev and impose sanctions on Moscow over the war.
This week, Hungary said it would ask the EU to intervene over the blocked deliveries. Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó threatened that Hungary would block repayments to EU countries for their military aid to Ukraine until the conflict was resolved.
Gulyás said on Friday that the blockade on Lukoil’s supplies could lead to fuel shortages, but that there was “no reason to panic” as Hungary still has reserves.
However, he said that “a solution must be found before September.”
“Hungary does not want to counter-blackmail Ukraine. We hope that the EU will help, but if not, we will have to look for other solutions,” Gulyás said.
The EU imposed sanctions on Russian oil imports into the bloc in 2022 in response to Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. However, an exception was made for landlocked Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic, giving them time to find other sources of crude.