The EU doubts that it will be able to adopt new sanctions against Russia by the anniversary of the invasion. All because of Hungaryʼs veto

The EU is unlikely to be able to adopt new sanctions against Russia before the fourth anniversary of the invasion.

This was stated by the blocʼs chief diplomat Kaja Kallas, quoted by Reuters.

According to her, Hungaryʼs continued resistance made it clear that there would be no consensus at the meeting of EU foreign ministers on February 23.

The day before, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said that Hungary would block all decisions important to Ukraine until the transit of Russian oil via the “Druzhba” pipeline is resumed.

What preceded

Oil transit through Ukraine via the “Druzhba” pipeline was halted in late January due to massive Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure. As landlocked countries, Hungary and Slovakia are critically dependent on this route for Russian energy supplies.

On February 18, the governments of Hungary and Slovakia announced that the countries were stopping diesel exports to Ukraine, and later threatened to stop electricity supplies as well.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine called these threats from Hungary and Slovakia blackmail and noted that they are ready to use the Early Warning Mechanism, a tool within the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU that allows the parties to quickly respond to threats in the energy sector.

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