MOSCOW, July 31. /TASS/. Ukraine’s decision to block the transit of Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia aligns with the European Commission’s (EC) interests and the EU’s sanctions policy against Russian oil, a diplomatic source in Brussels told TASS.
"This situation (suspension to pump Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia by Kiev - TASS) fully meets the interests of the European Commission, which developed and introduced a full ban on maritime supplies of Russian oil to EU countries on December 5, 2022 with the consent of the Union’s member states. However, Hungary and Slovakia were able to exempt themselves from this decision until the end of 2025," the diplomat said. "They cited geography as the reason here. They have no marine access or infrastructure to receive oil from alternative suppliers. This is why the European Commission consented to grant them a postponement," he added.
In 2022, many thought that "the Ukrainian crisis would end long before 2025, but the situation turned out differently," the source stressed.
"Brussels has repeatedly signaled to them that they should develop routes to provide their industry with oil via the sea, through bordering countries, up to the construction of far-reaching pipelines for those purposes, as well as prepare their industry to shift to other grades of oil. However, Hungary and Slovakia preferred simply to receive cheaper Russian oil through a convenient pipeline. The European Commission could not put pressure on them as they had a judicial reprieve," the diplomat explained.
Amid this background Kiev’s blockage is "a good decision for the European Commission that strictly aligns with Brussels’ policy," he noted. "This is probably the reason why the European Commission is looking the other way on the issue," the diplomat said, adding that "Slovakia and Hungary will hardly receive support in this situation, unlike other EU countries," which "consented to purchase much more expensive oil long ago, a move that creates issues for their industry and voters."
The source also stressed that the oil blockade coincided "with the severe crisis in relations between Brussels and Budapest after Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s visits to Kiev, Moscow and Beijing." "The European Commission used this as an opportunity to inflict serious economic pain to Hungarian and Slovakian authorities," he said.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said earlier that the decision to suspend the transit of Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia was devised not in Kiev but in Brussels in order to blackmail any countries seeking peace. He stressed that the European Commission and Ursula von der Leyen personally should immediately answer whether they were the ones who instructed Kiev to block oil supplies, and if not, why the European Commission did not take any action within a week. Ukraine’s suspension of the transit of Russian oil undermines the energy security of two EU states and directly violates the association agreement with the EU, Szijjarto noted.
On December 5, 2022, the European Commission banned Russian oil shipments to EU countries as part of sanctions against Russia, but Hungary and Slovakia secured the right to receive Russian oil through the pipeline until the end of 2025. The European Commission vehemently opposed this exemption.
On July 17, Ukraine stopped the transit of oil from the Lukoil company through its territory to Hungary and Slovakia as Kiev had blacklisted it. Oil from Russia is supplied to those countries via the Druzhba pipeline that runs through Ukraine.
Budapest and Bratislava demanded an immediate start to consultations with Ukraine mediated by the European Commission, stressing that Kiev’s actions were a direct violation of the agreement on Ukraine’s association with the EU.
With two weeks having passed since then, the European Commission has not yet taken any action on the matter. European Commission spokesperson Olof Gill has said that the EC was continuing to gather information. He cautioned Hungary and Slovakia against any unilateral retaliatory measures, such as cutting off electricity supplies to Kiev, emphasizing that in the EU only the European Commission has the right to make decisions on foreign trade disputes.
Under EU rules, every member country must have enough hydrocarbon fuel reserves to sustain autonomous existence for 90 days.