According to Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó, Croatia is not a reliable transit country for crude oil. In his post, Szijjártó recalled that a week and a half ago along with Slovakia, the Hungarian government had turned to the European Commission over Ukraine's blocking of part of the oil deliveries needed to ensure the safe supply of these two countries.
He called it a "scandal" that the Commission's Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis claimed that Ukraine is not threatening either Slovak or Hungarian supplies and who pointed out that if oil is needed, there is another pipeline via Croatia. Commenting on this, Szijjártó wrote: "It is obviously a coincidence that the day before yesterday the Croatian prime minister wrote a letter to the president of the European Commission promoting the oil pipeline running through Croatia".
The foreign minister then criticized Brussels and suggested that Hungary was being punished for being pro peace and then explained that he did not think Croatia was not a reliable transit country anyway, among other things because 'they have increased the transit price for oil to five times the market average since the outbreak of the war' (in Ukraine – TN).
It was revealed in mid-July that Lukoil is not currently transporting oil to Hungary via Ukraine, i.e. the Druzhba pipeline. At the time, Szijártó said that he was in talks with his Russian counterpart, to find a legal solution to restart transit. Russian oil is still coming to Hungary, just not from Lukoil, but from Rosneft, for example. Ukraine stepped up its sanctions against Lukoil in June, effectively banning the company from using Ukraine as a transit route or carrying out any other activities.
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