Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban reached an agreement with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on December 8 during negotiations to continue the supply of Russian natural gas to Hungary through Turkey. Orban emphasized that the Hungarian side also received guarantees from Russia regarding uninterrupted energy resource supplies, and that American sanctions against Russian energy carriers would not affect Hungary due to a prior agreement with the United States.
This is reported by Finway
“Today, it was agreed with President Erdogan that the Turks will ensure the route for this,” Orban stated.
Hungary’s Energy Import Volumes
According to the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, in 2025, the country imported 8.5 million tons of oil and over 7 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Russia. These figures indicate a significant dependence of Hungary’s energy sector on supplies from the Russian Federation, despite pan-European sanctions and calls to reduce purchases of Russian energy carriers.
European Countries’ Expenditures on Russian Energy Carriers
According to estimates from the U.S. State Department, from February 2022 to January 2025, Hungary paid Russia about 22 billion dollars for oil and gas. Meanwhile, the volume of financial aid from Budapest to Kyiv remains minimal. In comparison, Slovakia, which also maintains economic ties with the Kremlin, spent approximately 18 billion dollars on purchasing Russian energy carriers, while its support for Ukraine amounted to about 1.5 billion dollars. The largest importer in this negative ranking turned out to be Turkey, which purchased oil and gas from Russia for about 32 billion dollars, while providing minimal assistance to Ukraine.