Hungary will seek solution to Ukraine oil transit impasse by September, minister says

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BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary will seek to resolve a dispute with Ukraine over the transfer of Russian oil by September to avoid a potential energy crisis, an aid to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Friday,

Orbán’s chief of staff, Gergely Gulyás, alleged that Kyiv was “blackmailing” Budapest by blocking the transfer of some Russian crude across its territory.

Ukraine last month adopted sanctions against Lukoil, Russia's largest non-state firm. Hungary receives most of its crude from Russia via the Druzhba or “Friendship” pipeline which runs into Central Europe through Belarus and Ukraine, about half of which it receives 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 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 that the blocking of Lukoil crude was in response to the two Central European countries' ”pro-peace stance."

Orbán, considered Russian President Vladimir Putin's closest partner in the European Union, has broken with other EU leaders by refusing to provide Ukraine with weapons to defend against Russia's full-scale invasion. He has routinely delayed, watered down or blocked efforts to send financial aid to Kyiv and impose sanctions on Moscow over its war.

This week, Hungary said it would seek intervention from the EU over the blocked supplies, and Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó threatened that Hungary would block reimbursements to EU countries for their military aid to Ukraine until the conflict was resolved.

Gulyás on Friday said the blocking of Lukoil deliveries could result in fuel shortages, but that there was “no reason to panic” since Hungary still has reserves.

Still, he said, "a solution must be found by September.”

“Hungary does not want to counter-blackmail Ukraine. We hope that the EU will help, but if not, we will need to look for other solutions,” Gulyás said.

The EU in 2022 passed sanctions on the import of Russian oil into the bloc in response to Putin's invasion of Ukraine, though an exception was granted to land-locked Hungary, Slovakia and Czech Republic to allow them time to find other crude sources.