BUDAPEST, 22 February. Hungary will block all EU decisions on sanctions against Russia until Ukraine resumes oil transit through the Druzhba pipeline, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said after an emergency meeting of the country's Energy Security Council.
„We have decided that until supplies through the Druzhba pipeline are restored, we will not support any EU sanctions policy. As a result, we will also reject the 20th sanctions package submitted to the EU for consideration. If oil supplies are resumed, we will return to the previous conditions,“ he said in a video interview broadcast by the M1 television station.
Earlier, Hungarian Foreign and Trade Minister Péter Szijjártó said that Budapest would not support the approval of the 20th EU sanctions package against Russia at the EU foreign ministers' meeting to be held in Brussels on 23 February.
Orbán also noted in his video speech that the Ukrainian leadership's refusal to resume transit of Russian oil could pose „a threat to Hungary's energy security“. „Today this threat has been averted and we are ensuring the normal functioning of the country's economy,“ he stressed.
„At the same time, we have decided to take countermeasures and to stop the supply of diesel fuel from Hungary to Ukraine until the supply of oil from Ukraine is restored,“ Orbán noted. In addition, Hungary has blocked a €90 billion EU war loan to Ukraine in response to the suspension of transit through the Druzhba pipeline.
TASS/gnews.cz-jav
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