Hungary Welcomes Deal to End Russian Oil Spat With Ukraine

Hungary's government on Tuesday welcomed a deal reached by energy company MOL aimed at guaranteeing the supply of Russian oil through Ukraine after Kyiv restricted transit.

In July, Hungary and Slovakia accused Kyiv of endangering their energy security by barring Russian energy giant Lukoil from using the Ukrainian section of the Druzhba pipeline.

But MOL announced on Monday that it reached a "sustainable solution" securing the transportation of oil to the two countries by concluding agreements with suppliers and pipeline operators.

As part of a deal, MOL said it would "take over ownership of the affected volumes of crude oil at the Belarus-Ukraine border" from September 9.

It added that the updated arrangements complies with EU sanctions.

"We welcome the solution coming from MOL. It is a technological solution," Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs told journalists at a state-funded think-tank.

"But there remains the political messaging which should be solved," he added, stressing that Hungary is always against using energy security as "political weapon."

In 2022, the EU imposed a ban on most oil imports from Russia.

But the Druzhba pipeline was temporarily exempted to give landlocked Central European countries time to diversify.

Hungary's nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban is the only EU leader to have maintained close ties with the Kremlin since Russia launched its full-scale invasion against Ukraine in 2022.

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