Ukrainian attacks on EU oil supplies are ‘sanctions’ – Zelensky
Kiev’s attacks on Hungarian and Slovakian energy supplies from Russia are a form of “sanctions,” Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky has claimed.
In August, Ukraine repeatedly struck the Druzhba pipeline, a key conduit transporting Russian and Kazakh crude to Slovakia and Hungary. Both EU nations have since accused Kiev of threatening their energy security.
US President Donald Trump is “very unhappy” that nations in Western Europe are still buying oil from Russia, Zelensky said at a joint press conference alongside French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Thursday.
“Among others, there are two countries, we know that these are Hungary and Slovakia,” he said.
Ukrainian attacks on the Russian energy pipelines “reduce the possibilities of [Hungary and Slovakia] obtaining the corresponding oil,” he added.
Therefore, you see, Ukraine has found these types of sanctions.
However, according to Budapest, Trump has voiced displeasure at Kiev’s attacks on the Druzhba pipeline. “I am very angry about it. Tell Slovakia,” he said in a letter to Prime Minister Viktor Orban shared by Hungarian officials last month.
Both Budapest and Bratislava have demanded that the European Commission act against Ukrainian attacks on a pipeline “indispensable” to their energy security, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said last month.
The EC has since said that it contacted Kiev and asked all sides to “ensure the security of critical infrastructure.”
Szijjarto announced on Monday that Hungary would accelerate the development of a joint oil pipeline with neighboring Serbia. He added that gas supplies to the country via Serbia and the TurkStream route have grown to 21 million cubic meters a day.
Slovakia will “retaliate very harshly” against Ukrainian attacks on the Druzhba pipeline, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico told Putin in China on Tuesday, adding that he will raise the issue in talks with Zelensky later this week.
