Hungary Summons Ukraine Envoy as Rift Deepens Over Gazprom Deal
Hungary Summons Ukraine Envoy as Rift Deepens Over Gazprom Deal
(Bloomberg) --
Hungary’s Foreign Ministry summoned Ukraine’s ambassador to protest the government in Kyiv asking the European Union to review a new long-term natural gas agreement with Gazprom.
Hungary and Gazprom on Monday signed a 15-year agreement that will send gas supplies from Russia through the Balkans and Austria, mostly or fully circumventing Ukraine, until now the main route for the fuel. Ukraine said it would ask the European Commission, the EU’s executive, to assess whether the deal breaks European energy rules.
“We’re deeply outraged by the decision of the Ukrainian government to attack the agreement,” Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said in a Facebook post on Tuesday. “We summoned the Ukrainian ambassador to the Foreign Ministry today to protest an attempt to violate our sovereignty.”
Ukraine on Monday said the agreement was driven by political motives rather than economic interests. Hungary’s agreement with Russian energy giant Gazprom “hurts Ukraine’s national interests” and was done to “please the Kremlin,” the Foreign Ministry in Kyiv said in a statement on Monday.
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