Russian President Vladimir Putin will host Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto for Kremlin talks on oil supplies amid a pipeline dispute.

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin will host Hungary’s Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto for talks in the Kremlin on Wednesday, with discussions expected to focus on oil supplies.

The meeting follows a phone call between Putin and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Tuesday, where they discussed the fate of Hungarian citizens captured while fighting for Ukraine and the impact of Middle East conflicts on global energy markets.

Hungary, the European Union’s most Russia-friendly member state, has maintained ties with Moscow throughout the four-year-long offensive in Ukraine.

Budapest currently relies on Russian oil and is embroiled in a standoff with Kyiv over halted supplies through the damaged Druzhba pipeline in Ukraine.

Ukraine has stated that Russia attacked the pipeline and that repairs are being delayed due to the threat of another strike.

Both Hungary and Slovakia, which also receives Russian oil via the pipeline, have accused Kyiv of deliberately delaying repairs to cut them off from supplies.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov asserted that buyers of Russian oil were “facing blackmail” and accused Kyiv of “the deliberate blocking of deliveries through the Druzhba pipeline”.

 The Sun Malaysia