-111f0e5095e02c02446ffed57bfb0ab1.jpeg "Photo of Roman Kohanets")
Hungary will continue importing Russian crude despite Washington’s call for NATO allies to stop buying it, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on September 23.
“We can’t ensure the safe supply [of energy products] for our country without Russian oil or gas sources,” he told the Guardian, adding that “we can only buy from where we have infrastructure.”
Regional outlets echoed Szijjártó’s stance on September 23, quoting him as saying Hungary would not abandon Russian energy because doing so would jeopardize supply security. “We can’t ensure the safe supply … without Russian oil or gas,” some cited him as saying.
Szijjártó’s remarks followed President Donald Trump’s recent demand that Europe cease purchases of Russian oil as a condition for new US sanctions on Moscow.
“I am ready to do major Sanctions on Russia when all NATO Nations have agreed, and started, to do the same thing, and when all NATO Nations STOP BUYING OIL FROM RUSSIA,” Trump wrote on Truth Social last week, according to the Guardian’s account of his post.
Budapest remains one of the bloc’s chief holdouts due to its reliance on pipeline deliveries via the Soviet-era Druzhba network, which also supplies Slovakia.
EU restrictions have already eliminated most seaborne Russian crude imports, but Hungary and Slovakia continue to receive pipeline oil under earlier exemptions; the EU’s Russian oil intake has fallen about 90% since 2022, according to recent briefings.
Pipeline disruptions in August underscored the dependence. After attacks damaged infrastructure in Russia, flows to Hungary and Slovakia were temporarily halted before partial test-mode deliveries resumed at lower volumes, Hungary said at the time.
European and transatlantic pressure is building. Bloomberg has reported that the EU is weighing trade measures aimed at the remaining Druzhba flows, potentially without unanimous consent, while commentators and officials across Europe have urged Budapest and Bratislava to align with broader efforts to reduce Russian energy revenue.
Earlier, it was reported that Slovakia and Hungary restored Russian oil deliveries through the Druzhba pipeline after a temporary shutdown caused by a Ukrainian strike on a pumping station in Russia.
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