Budapest Prime Minister Viktor Orban announced on Wednesday that Hungary will gradually stop sending natural gas to Ukraine until Russian oil flows through the Drujba pipeline resume, according to Reuters.
Hungary and Slovakia, whose leaders have struck a discordant note in the EU by maintaining relations with Russia, blame Kiev for problems at the Ukrainian section of the Drujba pipeline, which supplied their refineries with Russian crude. Kiev says the pipeline was damaged by a Russian drone strike in late January and is repairing it as quickly as it can.
“We are gradually stopping gas supplies from Hungary to Ukraine and we will store the remaining gas in Hungary,” Viktor Orban said in a video message posted on Facebook on Wednesday.
Kiev's reaction
According to the data on the website of the Hungarian operator FGSZ, gas shipments to Ukraine were operating on Wednesday morning.
“So far, this import has not been stopped,” Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhy told reporters.
“If Prime Minister Orban still decides to stop it, we believe that the only consequence will be depriving the Hungarian economy and Hungarians of more than $1 billion, which Hungary received, for example, last year,” Tykhy added.
Ukraine was to receive 8.3 million cubic meters of gas from Hungary on Wednesday, the same volume as on Tuesday, according to data from the operator of Ukraine's gas transmission system.
On Wednesday, Ukraine planned to import a total of 25 million cubic meters of gas from Eastern Europe.
For March, Ukraine contracted 180 million cubic meters of gas from Hungary, down slightly from February's volume, an industry source told Reuters.
Hungary continues to block the EU loan to Ukraine
Viktor Orban, who is preparing for national parliamentary elections on April 12, was not persuaded by other EU leaders last week to give the green light to a 90 billion euro EU loan to support Ukraine.
In the past, the Hungarian leader had signaled that his country could also reduce electricity exports to Ukraine if Russian oil flows through Drujba are not resumed.
Last week, EU experts traveled to Ukraine to assess the condition of the pipeline after Kiev said it had accepted an EU offer of technical assistance and funding to restore oil flows.
At the same time, however, Ukraine has indicated that a resumption of crude supplies to Hungary and Slovakia is weeks away.
