Hungary and Slovakia have turned down a request by Ukraine to hold consultations with Kiev on the sanctions imposed by Ukraine on Russia’s oil giant Lukoil, a European Commission spokesman said.
‘The Commission services have concluded that urgent consultations are not necessary in the first place,’ the spokesman said in a statement.
As Russian oil continues to flow through Ukraine via the Druzhba pipeline linking Russia to the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, Brussels has no evidence that Ukraine’s sanctions pose a risk to Europe’s energy supply security, the spokesman said: ‘Ukraine’s sanctions against Lukoil do not appear to affect the ongoing oil transit operations by trading companies through Druzhba, as long as Lukoil is not the official owner of the oil.’
Slovakia and Hungary complained to Brussels that Kiev’s sanctions against Lukoil prevented them from buying Russian oil for their refineries and threatened security of supply.
Hungary has provided the Commission with additional information on the issue, which the Commission said it would analyse. The Druzhba oil pipeline continued to operate after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, even as the EU gave up most other Russian energy supplies. The southern branch of the pipeline runs through Ukraine to the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary and has been the primary source of supply for the refineries of these countries for years.
