BUDAPEST, March 16. /TASS/. The US decision to suspend the ban on Russian maritime oil shipments has some EU leaders very upset, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto announced in Brussels.

"The US government has taken a lot of criticism for temporarily suspending sanctions against Russia in order to lower oil prices," he told Hungarian journalists during a break in the EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting. His press conference was broadcast by M1 television.

Unlike most other EU countries, Hungary supported the US administration's decision and called on Brussels to follow Washington's example and also suspend the ban on Russian oil supplies. As Szijjarto noted earlier, "Europe is suffering not only from the unstable Arab oil situation, but also from the ban on Russian oil supplies."

The US Treasury Department has lifted sanctions on the sale of oil and petroleum products from Russia loaded onto vessels before March 12. A general license issued by the agency's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) allows such transactions until April 11. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated that this decision should increase global oil supply and bring down the cost of crude.