Gabriela Baczynska and John Chalmers

BRUSSELS. (Reuters.) – The European Union gave Hungary concessions for an oil embargo to Russia in response to its invasion of Ukraine. It sealed a deal on Tuesday morning that aims at reducing Russia’s crude imports to the bloc by 90%.

The EU has promised that it will not embargo the pipeline Hungarian landlocked relies upon for Russian oil. This is a way to cut Moscow’s revenue to fund the three-month-old war in Ukraine.

Estonia’s Prime minister Kaja Kallas stated that it was a fair compromise and this was what we got. She spoke to journalists as she arrived in Brussels for Day 2, where EU leaders would discuss how to lower rising energy prices.

Fresh from his re-election, Viktor Orban (Hungarian Prime Minister) reiterated that an embargo full would have been “atomic bomb” to the Hungarian economy.

Orban stated in an online video that “it would have been impossible for us to run the Hungarian economic with the more costly (non Russian) oil… but we have managed not to do that,” (NASDAQ:).

After being legally implemented in the next days, the embargo on Russian oil imports will apply to seaborne shipping.

The embargo on the rest of 10% will temporarily be lifted to allow Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic access through the Druzhba pipe from Russia.

Latvia’s Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins said keeping the EU united was the prime goal, despite effectively giving into the demands of Hungary, a member state that rights groups say is increasingly authoritarian and combative vis-à-vis the bloc.

Karins stated that “the important news is the EU remains united in its purpose, the purpose being to stop Russia’s aggressive war on Ukraine.”

RUSSIAN GAS NEXT TARGET

Although there are many details still to iron out, the oil embargo agreement follows an earlier ban against Russian coal. It allows the bloc to impose six rounds of sanctions, including the removal from SWIFT International system Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank.

Moscow claims that its war on Ukraine is part of a special military operation to remove dangerous nationalists from Ukraine. It has responded to EU sanctions with a cut in energy supply to the Netherlands, Poland, Finland, and Poland.

The EU seemed to have set Russia as the next diplomatic target in weeks after enacting the oil embargo.

On Tuesday, several world leaders called for a 7th round of sanctions to be implemented. However Karl Nehammer, Austrian Chancellor, stated that “Gas cannot be included in the next sanctions.”