By Julia Payne and Lili Bayer
BRUSSELS (Reuters) -The European Union renewed its wide-ranging sanctions on Russia on Monday for another six months after Hungary stopped holding up the move in return for assurances about energy security.
“Europe delivers: EU Foreign Ministers just agreed to extend again the sanctions on Russia,” Kaja Kallas, the bloc’s foreign policy chief, posted on social media.
“This will continue to deprive Moscow of revenues to finance its war,” she added. “Russia needs to pay for the damage they are causing.”
Officials from other EU countries had warned that a failure to roll over the sanctions before a Jan. 31 deadline would have major consequences, such as the unfreezing of Russian assets in Europe used to help Kyiv.
The sanctions up for renewal include all sector-based bans on trade as well as the measures that immobilised Russia’s central bank assets. Legally, EU countries must unanimously vote to renew these restrictions every six months.
Profits from the frozen assets are being used to finance a $50 billion loan to Ukraine backed by the G7.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban had first called for consultations with the Trump administration before a renewal decision. But U.S. President Donald Trump has said he is ready to increase economic pressure on Russia to strike a peace deal.
Budapest then cited its complaints about Ukraine ending a deal that brought Russian gas to Hungary.
But Hungary – which maintains closer economic and political ties with Russia than other EU members – indicated on Monday it was ready to give the green light at the ministers’ meeting if it received assurances of help from the European Commission.
At a meeting of EU ambassadors on Monday morning, the Commission presented a statement declaring it was “ready to continue discussions with Ukraine on the supply to Europe through the gas pipeline system in Ukraine”.
The statement, seen by Reuters, also said the Commission – the EU’s executive body – was ready to involve Hungary and Slovakia in the process.
“The Commission will approach Ukraine to request assurances regarding the maintenance of oil pipeline transfers to the EU,” the statement also said.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said he was satisfied with the Commission’s assurances.
“The European Commission committed itself to the protection of the natural gas and oil pipelines leading to member states of the European Union,” he said in a Facebook post.
(Additional reporting by Anita Komuves and Bart Meijer; Writing by Andrew Gray; Editing by Alison Williams and Sharon Singleton)
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