Hungary Blocks EU Embargo on Russian Oil Imports

Diplomats said that Hungary blocked the approval of the agreement reached by the European summit to ban the bulk of Russian oil imports and impose new sanctions on Russia.

Budapest refused to include the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Patriarch Kirill, on the European blacklist.

During their summit in Brussels, the capital city of Belgium,  on Monday and Tuesday, the leaders of the 27 member states decided to impose a new package of sanctions on Russia, which included, in particular, the inclusion of the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill on the European blacklist, as he is an "old ally of President Vladimir Putin.

Head of the Russian Orthodox Church has become one of the main supporters of the Russian military aggression against Ukraine,” according to the draft resolution approved by the summit.

The most prominent provision of this sixth package of European sanctions against Moscow is to reduce the European Union's imports of Russian oil by 90% by the end of this year, with the aim of depriving the Kremlin of "a huge source of funding" for the war in Ukraine.

European sanctions can only be imposed by unanimous consent of all 27 EU states.

Although Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban gave his approval during the summit to this new package of sanctions, the final touches on the sanctions decision were supposed to be completed by the ambassadors of the bloc's countries during a meeting held in Brussels on Wednesday.