Hungary urges EU to pause Russia sanctions as oil prices surge

Hungary, along with neighbouring Slovakia accuse Ukraine of deliberately delaying reopening the Druzhba pipeline pumping Russian oil to the two landlocked EU member states, which Kyiv says was damaged by Russian strikes in January.

Orban has been holding up a 90-billion-euro (US$106-billion) EU loan to the war-torn country and a new round of sanctions against Moscow over what he calls the “Ukrainian oil blockade”.

The nationalist leader has recently ramped up political attacks on Ukraine ahead of a closely fought parliamentary election on Apr 12.

Relations hit a new low over the weekend after Hungary arrested seven Ukrainian state bank employees and seized the US$80 million of cash and nine gold bars they were transporting from Austria.