"While we condemn Russia’s armed offensive and we also condemn the war, we will not allow Hungarian families to be made to pay the price of the war; and so the sanctions must not be extended to the areas of oil and gas,” Orban said in a statement following bilateral talks in London with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson.  

The extension of the sanctions to the Russian energy sector would represent a “disproportionately large burden” for Hungary, he said.

Most of Hungary’s oil and natural gas imports come from Russia, and 90% of Hungarian families heat their homes with gas, Orban said, stressing that the Hungarian economy “simply cannot function" without Russian oil and gas.