Hungary will not support European sanctions targeting Russian oil and gas, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has said. In doing so, the minister repeated a previously expressed view of his government via Facebook.
Still, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Tuesday that a European import ban on Russian oil is in the works.
France has been calling for a ban on Russian oil for some time now. German parliamentarians last week announced that a majority in the Bundestag is in favour of an oil embargo against Russia. Berlin has been cautious until now because Germany is very dependent on that oil. Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky has called for a boycott of Russian oil several times.
The European Union has introduced a package of sanctions against Russia because of the war in Ukraine, but oil and gas have so far been left out. European countries are largely dependent on Russia for these energy sources. Hungary is the most pro-Russian of the EU countries.