United States Senator Lindsey Graham hit out at Hungary and Slovakia over their purchases of Russian energy, threatening the Central European countries with “consequences” if they don’t end their reliance on Moscow.
American President Donald Trump last week called on NATO countries to “stop buying oil from Russia,” pledging to sanction Moscow once they had all done so. U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright also called on the EU’s remaining buyers of Russian fossil fuels to look elsewhere for their energy.
Graham, a top Trump ally, said in a social media post that the president was “right to demand that Europe stop buying Russian oil” and conceded Europe had largely done so — adding it was “now virtually down to Hungary and Slovakia.”
“I hope and expect them to step up to the plate soon to help us end this bloodbath,” he said. “If not, consequences should and will follow.”
Prior to the Kremlin’s all-out assault on Ukraine in February 2022, the bloc as a whole imported 45 percent of its natural gas and 27 percent of its crude oil from Russia.
Last year, that number dropped to 19 percent for gas and 3 percent for oil, after the European Commission banned imports by sea. In 2024, countries in the EU forked out €21.9 billion on Russian fossil fuels, accounting for about 10 percent of Russia’s total global export revenues.
But while most member countries have ended or drastically reduced their dependence since the outbreak of the war — in a bid to drain Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war chest — Hungary and Slovakia have ramped up theirs, cashing in on Russia’s discounted exports.
Budapest “increased its Russian crude reliance from 61 percent pre-invasion to 86 percent in 2024,” while Bratislava “remained almost 100 percent dependent on supply from Moscow,” according to a report by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.
Both countries have sought friendlier relations with the Kremlin and so far refused calls to find alternative energy sources.
Hungary imposed sanctions last month on the Ukrainian military officer who was behind an attack on the Druzhba pipeline in Russia, which supplies over half of Budapest’s oil imports.
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