(Bloomberg) -- Ukraine should consider the implications of moves like its recent transit ban of crude from a major Russian supplier on its neighbors such as Hungary and Slovakia, Luxembourg’s Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel said on Tuesday.
The rebuke of Kyiv by a European partner over an escalating row comes after Budapest warned the country may face fuel shortages as early as September and threatened to retaliate.
Speaking at a news conference in Latvia on Tuesday, Bettel said that if such moves affect consumers in other nations then “other countries have to be around the table too or at least be informed.”
“We should avoid to create new tensions where we make it too easy for other countries, and especially this time for Hungary and Slovakia to say that they don’t agree,” Bettel said. That in turn could lead to a tit-fot-tat of sanctions and restrictions between the countries, said the Luxembourg foreign minister.
Ukraine in June toughened sanctions against Lukoil PJSC, effectively prohibiting the Russian oil company from using the war-torn country as a transit route to some customers in central Europe. Hungary has asked the European Union to help broker a solution with Kyiv.
Ukraine is in close contact with the European Commission and ready to join consultations to resolve the dispute if the EU’s executive decides on them, foreign ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi said on Tuesday.
“We’re in constant contact with the Slovak side — at the level of prime ministers but also at other ministries and we are studying incoming proposals,” he told reporters in Kyiv, without elaborating on the progress in talks with Budapest.
Orban, who maintains close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin, antagonized Ukraine and its western allies with a self-styled “peace mission” from Moscow to Beijing.
Since the Kremlin launched its full-scale invasion more than two years ago, the Hungarian leader has repeatedly sought to delay the approval of the EU’s aid for Kyiv and sanctions on Russia.
Bettel also criticized Orban’s trip as the “middle finger to the Ukrainians fighting, fighting on the ground against Russian aggression.”
“When you want peace you start with the victims and you don’t just start with the aggressors,” he said.
--With assistance from Veronika Gulyas and Daryna Krasnolutska.
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