Trump did not ask Hungary to stop importing Russian oil, says Szijjártó
Péter Szijjártó, Head of Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (photo: Getty Images)
US President Donald Trump allegedly did not ask Hungary to stop importing Russian oil. Budapest "depends" on oil supplies from Russia, said Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó, Telex reports.
"Of course, there was no such message, not even anything similar," Szijjártó assured.
He believes that European countries that condemn Slovakia and Hungary for importing Russian oil allegedly import it themselves secretly through Asian intermediaries. Meanwhile, Budapest and Bratislava do it openly, which is "determined by their infrastructure."
Szijjártó explained that only two oil pipelines lead to Hungary – from Croatia and from Russia. And the capacity of the Croatian one is "insufficient" to cover all the needs of Hungary and Slovakia.
"Given the infrastructure and physical reality, Hungary can function safely from an energy point of view only if the Druzhba oil pipeline is operating. The pipeline from Croatia is an excellent auxiliary route, but by itself it cannot supply Hungary and Slovakia," the minister added.
Trump's demands
Earlier, Western media, citing their own sources, wrote that US President Donald Trump demanded that Europe completely stop importing Russian oil and gas.
Later, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted that the American leader was very dissatisfied that some European countries continued to buy oil from Russia. This referred to Hungary and Slovakia.
In addition, recently Ukrainian defenders attacked the Russian oil pipeline Steel Horse.
