MOSCOW, July 31. /TASS/. Ukraine approved by Western curators has decided to blackmail Hungary and Slovakia by blocking supplies of Russian oil via the Druzhba oil pipeline, Deputy Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Information and Press Department Andrey Nastasyin told a briefing.

"The decision by [Vladimir] Zelensky’s regime to suspend transportation of oil to Hungary and Slovakia is another demonstration of Kiev’s inability to negotiate and its propensity for trivial blackmail," he said.

"The transit of energy resources via Ukraine has turned into a ‘manipulation button’ for the Kiev regime, whose actions along those lines are encouraged by the West," the diplomat noted. "Today Zelensky’s curators set the goal of breaking completely Russia’s energy cooperation with the European countries that are still guided by their own national interests and sound economic considerations," he said.

"Another wave of judicial pressure on one of suppliers, the Russian company Lukoil whose oil Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia purchase, coincided by circumstance we were not surprised at with a number of peaceful diplomatic initiatives of Budapest aimed at solving the conflict in Ukraine. It also coincided with the Hungarian and Slovakian authorities’ refusal to support silently the latest illegitimate anti-Russia sanctions decisions by the EU’s Brussels," the diplomat noted. "It appears that with the consent from Washington’s and the EU’s curators that decided to put pressure on incompliant Hungarians and Slovakians Kiev decided to raise the ante on July 17 as it announced the blocking of oil supplies via Druzhba from the Russian company Lukoil, which does not fall within sanctions restrictions by the way," he added.

Ukraine has repeatedly announced its intention to join the European Union as soon as possible, Nastasyin noted. "Here is a candidate, whose insane actions threat the energy security of two EU member states and a few more member states and candidate countries by the way. We state again that millions of ordinary Europeans fall victims of the anti-Russia policy," he concluded.