Hungary has vowed to block new European Union (EU) sanctions on Russia and a EUR90 billion ($134 billion) loan for Ukraine, citing an ongoing outage of Russian oil through a key pipeline.
Hungarian Foreign Affairs Minister Peter Szijjarto said, “We are not agreeing with passing the 20th package because Ukraine decided not to restart the oil deliveries to Hungary, with which they do endanger our energy security.”
“No one has the right to put our energy security at risk because it’s an issue of national sovereignty,” he added.
Approval of the 20th sanctions package and the Ukraine loan by the EU is unlikely due to objections by Hungary and Slovakia.
“As we have heard some very strong statements from Hungary, that’s why I don’t really see that they are going to change this, unfortunately, today, this position that they have,” said Kaja Kallas, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy.
Russian oil shipments to Hungary and Slovakia have been interrupted since late January.
Hungary said Ukraine is responsible for the disruption and that it will not change its stance until deliveries resume.
Ukrainian officials denied the accusation, saying the cause of the disruption was due to Russian drone attacks that damaged a key pipeline.
The development comes as attacks in the southern Odessa region killed two people overnight.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned the world must apply intense pressure on Moscow, accusing Russian President Vladimir Putin of seeking global dominance.
