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Hungary has several aces in hole to force Ukraine to lift oil blockade — Orban

The Hungarian prime minister disapproved of the EU's intention to provide Ukrainians with money under the next seven-year EU budget

BUDAPEST, March 20. /TASS/. Hungary has many ways to pressure Ukraine to resume transit of Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline besides blocking the 90 billion euro loan from the EU, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said.

"40% of Ukrainian electricity imports come through Hungary, and we haven't even touched on that yet," he told Hungarian journalists after an EU summit as broadcast by M1 TV channel.

Orban said that Brussels and Kiev "are constantly striving to introduce new packages of sanctions [against Russia], and this requires unanimity. We won't let them do it. They also want to provide Ukrainians with money under the next seven-year EU budget. We will not approve it. We have many levers of pressure at our disposal, so don’t mess with Hungary."

On March 19, Orban and his Slovak counterpart Robert Fico responded to Kiev's suspension of Russian oil transit by blocking the 90 billion euro "military loan" to Ukraine and the approval of the 20th package of sanctions against Russia at the EU summit.

The statement issued after the summit said the measures were supported by 25 of the 27 nations, meaning the EU will have to return to this topic at the next summit.

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Ukraine Hungary

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