Hungarian minister accuses EU of orchestrating stoppage of Russian oil through Ukraine
abcnews.go.comHungary’s foreign minister has accused the European Union’s executive commission of orchestrating a stoppage of some Russian oil supplies into the bloc through Ukraine and warned that the dispute could lead to an energy crisis
BUDAPEST, Hungary — Hungary's Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó Tuesday accused the European Union's executive commission of orchestrating a stoppage of some Russian oil supplies into the bloc through Ukraine and warned that the dispute could lead to an energy crisis.
Ukraine last month adopted sanctions against Lukoil — Russia’s largest non-state firm — which prohibited the transit of its oil across the Druzhba or “Friendship” pipeline through Ukraine and into Hungary and Slovakia. Hungary receives most of its crude from Russia, about half of which comes from Lukoil.
The move angered officials in Slovakia and Hungary, which argued the blocked supply would endanger their energy security. The two countries threatened legal action against Kyiv unless Lukoil’s crude is allowed to resume its deliveries.
On Tuesday, Szijjártó blasted the EU's executive commission in a post on Facebook, writing that it had “done nothing” in the week since Budapest and Bratislava asked it to intervene in the oil dispute.
“Despite the threat to the energy security of two EU Member States… Brussels remains silent,” Szijjártó wrote, adding that either the commission is too “weak” to protect the interests of Slovakia and Hungary or “it was Brussels, not Kyiv, that invented the whole thing.”
“The European Commission, and President Ursula von der Leyen personally, must come clean immediately: did Brussels ask Kyiv to ban oil supplies?” Szijjártó wrote. «And if not, why has the European Commission taken no action in more than
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