Hungary’s foreign minister accuses EU of disrupting oil supplies from Russia

BUDAPEST (Reuters) -Hungary’s foreign minister said on Saturday the European Commission’s decision not to mediate in a dispute over a blockage of oil supplies from Russia via Ukraine into his country suggested that Brussels was behind the stoppage.

Hungary and its neighbour Slovakia have been protesting since Ukraine put Russian oil producer Lukoil on a sanctions list in June, stopping that company’s oil from passing through Ukrainian territory to Slovak and Hungarian refineries.

The assertion from Hungary’s Peter Szijjarto, which he made without providing evidence, came a day after the European Commission declined a request from Hungary and Slovakia for it to mediate between them and Ukraine over the sanctions.

“The fact that the European Commission declared that it was unwilling to help to secure the energy supply of Hungary and Slovakia suggests that the order was sent from Brussels to Kyiv to cause challenges and problems in the energy supply of Hungary and Slovakia,” Szijjarto said at a conservative political festival.

A European Commission spokesperson declined to comment on Szijjarto’s remarks.

The Commission, which has been supportive of Ukraine since Russia’s 2022 invasion, has repeatedly urged EU countries to end their dependency on energy supplies from Moscow. The EU has imposed sanctions on most Russian oil imports.

On Friday, a Commission spokesperson said there were no indications that Ukraine’s sanctions had endangered European energy supplies, as Russian oil continued to flow through the separate Druzhba pipeline, which also connects Russia to Slovakia and Hungary via Ukraine.

Ukraine’s government did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the Hungarian statement on Saturday.

Slovakia and Hungary are both EU countries that have opposed Western allies’ military aid to Ukraine as it fights the invasion that Russia launched in February 2022.

The pipeline’s southern branch runs through Ukraine to the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, and has served as their refineries’ primary supply source for years.

Last month Szijjarto made similar comments when he accused the European Commission of blackmail in the oil dispute and said that maybe “Brussels, not Kyiv, that invented the whole thing”.

A Hungarian government official said on Thursday that Hungarian oil company MOL was in the final stages of discussions to establish a scheme to ensure crude oil flows from Russia.

(Reporting by Anita Komuves, additional reporting by Kate Abnett; Editing by Andrew Heavens)