BUDAPEST, July 19. /TASS/. Hungary considers Ukraine’s actions to ban oil supplies from Russia unfriendly and will raise this issue on July 22 at a meeting of the EU Council at the level of foreign ministers in Brussels, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told reporters.
When asked to comment on sanctions Ukraine imposed against the Russian company Lukoil, which supplies oil through the southern branch of the Druzhba pipeline to Hungary and Slovakia, he said: "We pointed out to the Ukrainian authorities that this is an incomprehensible, unacceptable and unfriendly decision on their part."
"On Monday I will raise this issue at the Council of Foreign Ministers of the European Union, because it is strange that a country trying to join the European Union seriously threatens the energy supply of two EU member states," Szijjarto added.
He noted that the ban by the Ukrainian authorities on the transit of Russian oil from the Lukoil company through its territory is also illegal because the supply of raw materials via the southern branch of the Druzhba oil pipeline to Hungary and Slovakia is exempt from EU sanctions.
"With regard to the use of this pipeline, Hungary and Slovakia received an exception from sanctions measures. Thus, there are no European restrictive measures for the use of oil from Russia in Hungary and Slovakia," Szijjarto said, adding that "transit through Ukraine has worked so far."
Russian oil is used at two refineries of the Hungarian energy company Mol in Szazhalombatta and Bratislava, which are technologically adjusted to process exactly this type of crude. According to the minister, "Hungary and Slovakia receive about 2 million tons of oil from Lukoil from Russia" per year.
"Ukraine’s decision quite seriously threatens the security of oil supplies to Hungary and Slovakia in the long term," the Foreign Minister stressed, speaking at a meeting with reported after negotiations in Budapest with his Georgian counterpart Ilya Darchiashvili.
According to him, for the time being a temporary solution has been found to this problem, but this will not work in the medium term. Ukrainian authorities "have shown some willingness to correct the situation, but these efforts are somewhere halfway, and have reached a dead end somewhere in Ukraine," Szijjarto said. Nevertheless, he expressed hope that a solution to this problem will be found.