Hungary called Croatia “unreliable” for oil transit — it was offered by the EU as an alternative to the Russian oil pipeline

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó called Croatia an "unreliable" country for oil transit. It was proposed by the European Commission as an alternative to the transit of Russian oil through Ukraine, which Kyiv stopped.

In his Facebook post, Peter Sijarto wrote that the Vice President of the European Commission, Valdis Dombrovskis, sent a letter to him and the Slovak Minister of Foreign Affairs Juraj Blanar with a proposal to use the transit Croatian oil pipeline and added that Ukraineʼs sanctions against the Russian “Lukoil” do not threaten Hungary and Slovakia.

The head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Hungary reacted as follows: "Scandal! The vice presidentʼs letter once again proves that Ukrainians can afford anything against EU member states, especially if they stand for peace and do not transport weapons."

And he stated that Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic allegedly "advertised" his oil pipeline to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, before Dombrovskis wrote to Budapest and Bratislava. Péter Szijjártó called it a "coordinated action with Brussels".

Péter Szijjártó emphasized that Croatia is "unreliable", because since the beginning of the full-scale war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, it has allegedly significantly increased the transit fee, made it impossible for the Hungarian oil and gas company MOL to reduce delivery capacity for the long term, and has not made investments in the oil pipeline.

"Thus, the cessation of oil supplies from the east threatens Hungary and Slovakia with unreliable transit," Szijjártó summarized, referring to supplies from Russia.

• Russian “Lukoil” has stopped supplying oil to Hungary and Slovakia due to Kyivʼs sanctions against the company, which effectively prohibit it from using the territory of Ukraine for transit. Both countries continued to receive Russian oil, taking advantage of the sanctions exemptions granted by the EU on the condition that they quickly find alternative sources of oil. However, this did not happen.
• Due to the fact that Warsaw and Slovakia no longer receive Russian oil, they even initiated the consultation procedure of the arbitration court with the European Commission. However, their attempt failed — the European Commission rejected the request to force Kyiv to allow the transit of oil from the Russian Federation.
• Hungary and Slovakia then resorted to threats: Szijjártó said that his country would block EU military aid to Ukraine until it lifted sanctions against Lukoil, and Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico threatened to cut diesel exports to Ukraine. Ukraine has declared that it will not cancel the sanctions against “Lukoil”.