"Peacekeeping Mission" Continues: Hungary Ready to Unblock Billions in EU Aid for Ukraine in Exchange for Russian Lukoil Oil Transit
Hungary will block payments of military aid from the EU budget until Ukraine resumes transit of Lukoil oil. Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said this in an interview with ATV.
‘Until Ukraine resolves this issue, everyone should forget about paying EUR 6.5 billion in compensation from the European Peacekeeping Mechanism for the transferred weapons,’ Szijjarto said.
In addition, the Hungarian Ministry of Energy convened an urgent meeting of the working group on energy supply stability on Tuesday. This working group ‘reviewed the steps already taken and possible future actions’.
Earlier, Slovakia and Hungary announced that they had stopped receiving oil from their key supplier, Russia's Lukoil, after Ukraine imposed a ban on the transit of the Russian energy company's resources through its territory in June in line with EU sanctions.
Peter Szijjarto said that Ukraine's move allegedly ‘clearly violates’ the 2014 EU-Ukraine Association Agreement. He added that Hungary and Slovakia, which are also affected by the ban, have started talks with the European Commission, preceding the legal action.
Ukraine argues that it is simply trying to suppress a key source of revenue for the Russian military treasury due to Russia's ongoing third-year occupation war against Ukraine.
Instead, Sijjarto believes that the European Commission ‘should put pressure on Ukraine’ to allow Lukoil to resume oil supplies through Ukrainian territory.
The day before, EU foreign ministers reportedly failed to agree on unblocking the European Peace Fund, which finances arms supplies to Ukraine, due to Hungary's objections. These funds, which amount to more than €6 billion, have been blocked for almost a year because of Hungary's pro-Russian stance.
After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the EU banned imports of Russian oil coming to the bloc by sea, but allowed landlocked countries such as Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic to continue buying supplies through the Druzhba pipeline until they find an alternative solution.
On Tuesday, an EU spokesperson confirmed that European Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis had received a letter from Hungary and Slovakia and that the contents of the letter were being studied.