BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) \u2014 Hungary will block a planned 90-billion-euro ($106-billion) European Union loan to Ukraine until the flow of Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline resumes, Hungary\u2019s foreign minister said. <\/p>\n
Russian oil shipments to Hungary<\/a> and Slovakia have been interrupted since Jan. 27 after what Ukrainian officials said was a Russian drone attack<\/a> damaged the Druzhba pipeline, which carries Russian crude across Ukrainian territory and into Central Europe.<\/p>\n Hungary and Slovakia, which have both received a temporary exemption from an EU policy prohibiting imports of Russian oil<\/a>, have accused Ukraine \u2014 without providing evidence \u2014 of deliberately holding up supplies. Both countries ceased shipping diesel to Ukraine<\/a> this week over the interruption in oil flows . <\/p>\n In a video posted on social media Friday evening, Foreign Minister P\u00e9ter Szijj\u00e1rt\u00f3 accused Ukraine of \u201cblackmailing\u201d Hungary by failing to restart shipments. He said his government would block a massive interest-free loan<\/a> the EU approved in December to help Kyiv to meet its military and economic needs for the next two years.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will not give in to this blackmail. We do not support Ukraine\u2019s war, we will not pay for it,\u201d Szijj\u00e1rt\u00f3 said. \u201cAs long as Ukraine blocks the resumption of oil supplies to Hungary, Hungary will block European Union decisions that are important and favorable for Ukraine.\u201d<\/p>\n Hungary\u2019s decision to block the key funding came two days after it suspended diesel shipments to its embattled neighbor and only days before the fourth anniversary of Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion. <\/p>\n Nearly every country in Europe has significantly reduced or entirely ceased Russian energy imports since Moscow launched its war in Ukraine<\/a> on Feb. 24, 2022. Yet Hungary and Slovakia \u2014 both EU and NATO members \u2014 have maintained and even increased supplies of Russian oil and gas.<\/p>\n Hungary\u2019s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n has long argued Russian fossil fuels are indispensable for its economy and that switching to energy sourced from elsewhere would cause an immediate economic collapse<\/a> \u2014 an argument some experts dispute<\/a>.<\/p>\n Widely seen as the Kremlin\u2019s biggest advocate in the EU, Orb\u00e1n has vigorously opposed the bloc\u2019s efforts to sanction Moscow over its invasion, and blasted attempts to hit Russia\u2019s energy revenues that help finance the war. His government has frequently threatened to veto EU efforts to assist Ukraine. <\/p>\n On Saturday, Slovakia\u2019s populist Prime minister Robert Fico said his country will stop providing emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine if oil is not flowing through the Druzhba by Monday. Orb\u00e1n\u2019s chief of staff, Gergely Guly\u00e1s, said earlier this week that Hungary, too, was exploring the possibility of cutting off its electricity supplies to Ukraine. <\/p>\n Not all of the EU\u2019s 27 countries agreed to take part in the 90-billion-euro loan package for Kyiv. Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic opposed the plan, but a deal was reached in which they did not block the loan and were promised protection from any financial fallout.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) \u2014 Hungary will block a planned 90-billion-euro ($106-billion) European Union loan to Ukraine until the…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":606673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,10102,440,8697,57,2850,95760,50,95759,80,50757,3657,50759,260854,273,16815,103,107],"class_list":["post-606672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-business","tag-energy-industry","tag-europe","tag-european-union","tag-general-news","tag-hungary","tag-hungary-government","tag-news","tag-peter-szijjarto","tag-politics","tag-robert-fico","tag-russia-ukraine-war","tag-slovakia","tag-slovakia-government","tag-ukraine","tag-viktor-orban","tag-world","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116110768256920859","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606672","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606672"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606672\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606672"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606672"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606672"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}