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Sky-high prices and electricity shortages could hit Hungarians within “weeks” after Kyiv imposed a partial ban on Russian oil passing through its territory.
Hungary is racing against time to avoid power outages and fuel shortages after Ukraine imposed a partial ban on Russian oil passing through its territory.
Kyiv last month imposed sanctions blocking the transit of pipeline crude sold by Moscow’s largest private oil firm, Lukoil, to Central Europe — partially negating an exemption to sanctions set up by the European Union to give Russian-reliant countries extra time to wean off supplies.
Ukraine’s aim is to throttle a key source of revenue for the Kremlin’s war chest more than two years after its full-scale invasion of the country.
But the move is sparking fears of supply shortages in Budapest, which relies on Russia for 70 percent of its oil imports — and Lukoil for half that amount.
I don’t understand how Hungary could possibly be surprised by this. They’ve been running their geopolitical stance at a goodwill deficit for years. Hungary is the one country in the EU that has materially negatively impacted Ukraine’s war effort (that is: while other countries have dropped the ball at various points due to bureaucratic idiocy, Hungary is the only country whose leadership is fairly openly ideologically opposed to the Ukrainian cause). I know their populace is propagandized and everything, but maybe catastrophic oil price increases will make some of them pull their heads out of their asses and revolt against Orban.
You wish. Orban controls all the media there now. You can be sure the narrative is “Ukraine is just punishing them unfairly for calling for a ceasefire and negociations” or anothe nice story that will make them look bad.