Hungary wants the European Union to persuade Ukraine to resume gas transit from Russia to Europe, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday, signalling a tough debate as the EU seeks to extend its sanctions against Russia over the coming week.

Russian gas stopped flowing to Europe via Ukraine at the start of the year over Moscow's invasion of its neighbour. Read more at straitstimes.com.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán on Friday said he wants the European Union to intervene in a gas dispute his country has with Ukraine, a potential sign of friction in the bloc's upcoming discussions over renewing sanctions against Russia.

As well as transiting Azerbaijani gas and exporting its own domestic reserves, Turkey imports fuel from Russia via the TurkStream pipeline under the Black Sea. After the Kremlin's agreement with Ukraine ended on Jan. 1, the underwater link is the only remaining route for Moscow to ship supplies to Europe.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban called on the European Union to pressure Ukraine to re-establish the transit of Russian gas to Europe and linked the issue to extending sanctions against Moscow.

Comments came after angry complaints from Slovakia and Hungary over Kyiv’s refusal to renew transit of Russian gas.

It’s hard to find a more hypocritical political class in the wide world than that of the Brussels bureaucrats. They demand that we sever ourselves from Russian gas, meanwhile, more Russian LNG is coming to Western Europe than ever before,