Budapest and Bratislava stopped receiving oil from the Russian energy company last week after Kyiv placed Lukoil on a sanctions list. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed the decision to sanction Lukoil in late June.
Now the heads of the Slovak and Hungarian foreign ministries want the European Commission to lead discussions with Kyiv on behalf of the European Union, to reverse the decisions and allow for the flow of Russian oil through Ukraine to these countries.
Hungary receives two million metric tonnes of oil from the Russian group annually, around a third of its total oil imports, Hungary’s Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said, pointing to his country’s dependency on these deliveries.
“I spoke with the Ukrainian foreign minister yesterday, he said they allow every oil transfer through, but this is not true,” Szijjártó told reporters in Brussels
He added: “The Commission has three days to execute our request, after which we will bring the issue to court.”
The minister even went on to say that if the consultation procedure did not bear fruit, both countries would bring the issue to an international court of their choosing.
Sanctions – state of affairs
Russia has continued to supply natural gas and oil to landlocked Hungary and Slovakia via Ukraine despite the war in the country and existing EU sanctions on Russian crude.
Slovakia and Hungary have exemptions from oil sanctions to give them more time to transition to alternative sources of supply, as both countries are heavily dependent on Russian raw materials.
Ukraine's ban does not affect other Russian oil exporters whose oil was still allowed to transit through Ukraine.
