“Hungary and Slovakia will push for the lifting of sanctions on Russia’s energy sector,” – Orbán said

Hungary and Slovakia have agreed to jointly press the European Union leadership to lift sanctions on supplies of Russian oil and gas to Europe.

This was reported by TASS, citing a video address by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán broadcast on local television channels.

Orbán made the statement after a phone call with his Slovak counterpart Robert Fico. According to him, Brussels must suspend all restrictions on Russian energy immediately — and keep them suspended as long as the European Union faces an energy crisis because of the conflict in the Middle East.

“We demand that Brussels immediately suspend the sanctions and restrictions imposed on Russian energy,” the politician said.

According to Orbán, anti-Russian sanctions in the field of energy supplies to the EU should be lifted right away, because for the European Union “every day counts now,” and depleted reserves must be replenished urgently.

The Hungarian prime minister expressed confidence that Europe should not completely abandon Russian oil and gas, since diversification of supplies makes energy resources more expensive and less affordable for European consumers. Orbán believes these plans do not correspond to global realities and should be “thrown into the trash.”

The prime minister of Hungary also called on Brussels to influence Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky so that Kyiv resumes the transit of Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline as soon as possible, after it was shut off on January 27.