The European Union (EU) on Monday, the 27th of January, extended its broad sanctions against Russia for another six months after Hungary dropped its efforts to delay the move in exchange for guarantees on energy security, reports Reuters.
“EU foreign ministers have just agreed to again extend sanctions against Russia,” the bloc’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on social media.
“This will continue to deprive Moscow of revenue to finance its war,” she added. “Russia must pay for the damage it has done.”
Officials from other EU countries had warned that failure to extend the sanctions by the 31st of January deadline would have serious consequences, such as the unfreezing of frozen Russian assets in Europe used to help Kyiv.
Among the sanctions that will be renewed are trade bans in all sectors, as well as measures immobilising the assets of the Russian central bank.
EU countries must vote unanimously to renew these restrictions every six months.
The profits from the frozen assets are being used to finance the G7-backed 50 billion US dollar loan to Ukraine.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban called for consultations with the Trump administration first before deciding on an extension. However, US President Donald Trump said he was ready to increase economic pressure on Russia to reach a peace agreement.
Budapest then pointed to its complaints that Ukraine had terminated the contract that secured Russian gas supplies to Hungary.
But Hungary, which has closer economic and political ties with Russia than other EU member states, said on Monday it was ready to give the green light at a ministerial meeting if it received guarantees of aid from the European Commission.
At a meeting of EU ambassadors on Monday morning, the Commission issued a statement saying it was “ready to continue negotiations with Ukraine on the supply to Europe through the gas pipeline system in Ukraine”.
The statement, seen by Reuters, also said the Commission was ready to involve Hungary and Slovakia in the process. Beyond these discussions, it was not clear what Hungary gained, as it was not explicitly mentioned that Russian gas flows would be restored.
At the weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Bloomberg that he was ready to sign an agreement on the flow of Azeri gas through Ukraine to the EU. Last year, Baku tried to reach an agreement on the continuation of Russian gas flows to the EU or an swap for Azeri gas, but failed. Azerbaijan has limited spare gas production.
“The Commission will work with Ukraine to request guarantees on the maintenance of oil pipeline transfers to the EU,” the statement added.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said he was satisfied with the Commission’s assurances.
“The European Commission is committed to protecting the natural gas and oil pipelines leading to EU Member States,” he said in a Facebook post.