A tense standoff over Hungary’s continued imports of Russian oil could be resolved by simply rebranding the barrels, Budapest said Thursday, imploring Ukraine to endorse the solution.
Gergely Gulyás, who serves as a minister in Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s private office, claimed that crude shipped by Russian firm Lukoil via Ukraine could be officially sold to Hungarian energy giant MOL before it crosses the border.
The swap would allow the oil to evade Kyiv’s new sanctions, which bar Lukoil products from transiting across Ukraine. The penalties have instigated a diplomatic rift with Hungary and Slovakia, which still import Russian oil shipped through Ukraine. Both countries were granted a temporary exemption to the blocwide embargo on Russian oil pipeline imports, but have continued to buy Moscow’s fossil fuels.
Hungary last month called on the EU to force Ukraine to back down over the sanctions, which it claims amount to energy blackmail. The EU, however, declined to engage, indicating there were several options to ensure oil would still flow.
