Hungary Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Friday morning said that his country could not follow the European Union’s new sanctions package against Russia. Mr Orban said the European Commission’s current proposal including an embargo on Russian crude oil imports would amount to an “atomic bomb” dropped on the Hungarian economy. But he said that Hungary could negotiate if it sees a new proposal that would comfortable for Hungary.
After the proposal on sanctions over oil imports from Russia, Hungary's foreign minister Peter Szijjarto said Russian oil accounts for 65 per cent of the nation’s oil supply and it could not support sanctions that would make shipments of Russian oil and gas “impossible.”
Meanwhile, Russia on 24th February launched its invasion of Ukraine. And, according to the latest updates, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, demanded that Ukraine order its fighters holed up in Azovstal to surrender, the Kremlin said. In a call with Israel’s prime minister, Naftali Bennett, Putin claimed Russia was still ready to provide safe passage for civilians from the plant, according to the Kremlin. However, the UK government has placed sanctions on Evraz, the multinational steelmaker part-owned by the billionaire Roman Abramovich. The company was formerly counted among Britain’s biggest companies. The Foreign Office said on Thursday that the action would “further chip away at Putin’s financial reserves and siege economy, and support Ukraine’s continued resistance”. Also, a $300 million yacht belonging to Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov has been seized by Fijian authorities at the request of the United States Department of Justice.