London announced nearly 300 new sanctions on Tuesday to mark the fourth anniversary of Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. U.K. Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said Britain was taking “decisive action” against “revenue streams that sustain Russia’s aggression,” News.Az reports, citing Politico.
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Among the targets was oil transport firm Transneft, which operates the Russian section of the Druzhba pipeline. That pipeline still supplies fuel to Hungary and Slovakia.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) said the firm was “ responsible for transporting over 80 percent of Russian oil exports, further hampering the Kremlin’s desperate scramble to find buyers for its sanctioned oil.”
But a new filing by the U.K. government’s Office for Financial Sanctions Implementation, published Tuesday, lists the Druzhba pipeline among “exempt projects” under the Russia sanctions regime.
In recent days, the pipeline has been at the heart of an intense row between Hungary and Brussels over support for Ukraine.
Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has accused Kyiv of deliberately stalling repairs to the Ukrainian section of the pipeline after it was damaged in what Ukraine said was a Russian drone attack in January. Budapest is now blocking a €90 billion European Union loan to Ukraine over the dispute.
Hungary remains heavily dependent on Russian crude. While the EU banned the import of Russian oil in 2022, an exemption was granted for pipeline imports which Hungary and Slovakia continue to exploit. The U.K. has also banned Russian oil imports.
On Monday, Ukraine carried out a drone attack on a pumping station that acts as a key supply hub for the Druzhba pipeline.
The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) was approached for comment.
Sanctions also targeted Russian oil traders, three nuclear energy companies and two Russian liquefied natural gas export terminals, Portovaya and Vysotsk.
