The Hungarian government said on Tuesday it welcomed a deal reached by energy company MOL, which will ensure supplies of Russian oil via a pipeline through Ukraine after Kiev previously restricted transit.

In July, Hungary and Slovakia accused Kiev of endangering their energy security by denying Russian energy giant Lukoil access to the Ukrainian section of the Druzhba pipeline.

However, MOL announced on Monday that it had reached a “sustainable solution” to secure the transportation of oil to the two countries after agreements were reached with suppliers and pipeline operators.

As part of the deal, MOL said it would take over “ownership of the relevant crude oil volumes on the Belarus-Ukraine border” from Monday. It added that the updated arrangements would be in line with EU sanctions.

“We welcome the solution that MOL is offering. It is a technological solution,” Hungarian government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs told reporters at a state-funded think tank.

“But there are still political messages that need to be resolved,” he added, stressing that Hungary has always been against using energy security as a “political weapon”.

In 2022, the EU imposed a ban on most oil imports from Russia, but the Druzhba pipeline was temporarily exempted to give landlocked Central European countries time to diversify.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is the only EU leader to maintain close ties with the Kremlin since Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.