Hungary will block disbursement of European Peace Facility (EPF) for Ukraine until Kyiv allows the transit of oil from Russia's Lukoil through the Friendship (Druzhba)  pipeline, the Hungarian foreign minister said on July 23.

"As long as this issue is not resolved by Ukraine, everyone should forget about the payment of the €6.5bn of the European Peace Facility compensation for arms, transfers," Peter Szijjarto told broadcaster ATV.

But Hungary has been blocking the disbursement of the next tranche of EPF money for more than a year, citing various issues, such discrimination against Hungarian companies, or the language rights of ethnic Hungarians in the country.

The EPF has been used to bankroll donations of weapons to Kyiv.

The Hungarian hold-up also threatens to delay the spending of billions more in profits from frozen Russian central bank assets that the EU expects to start receiving in July.

After pressure from EU members before the extraordinary meeting of the Council in February, Hungary’s illiberal leader gave the green light to extending €50bn financial aid to Ukraine.

In a social media post later on Tuesday, Szijjarto said the recent meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council had been characterised by "unbelievable hysteria", and he referred to "pro-war politicians venting their frustration" at Prime Minister Viktor Orban's "peace mission".

Representatives from all member states, except for Slovakia, condemned Viktor Orban’s self-described peace mission to Moscow to meet with Vladimir Putin. The move has sparked condemnation among Nato and EU members, and the EU Parliament also called it a blatant violation of EU treaties and common foreign policy.

Hungary and Slovakia are calling on the European Commission to mediate in talks with Ukraine over Kyiv's sanctions on Lukoil and the suspension of Russian oil supplies to Slovak and Hungarian refineries. The Hungarian foreign minister said he would otherwise take the matter to court.

He said the Ukrainian decision on stopping the crude oil transit of the Russian Lukoil severely jeopardises the energy supply of the two countries and violates the EU-Ukraine association agreement, according to which Ukraine cannot interrupt the supply of energy to EU member states across its territory.

On Tuesday afternoon, the Energy Ministry has convened its security task force to assess the impact of the disruption of oil transit. Ukraine has banned the transit of crude oil from the Russian company to Hungary and Slovakia last week, which has reduced imports by at least a third and half respectively.

Meanwhile, Szijjarto said the fact that the EU's foreign policy chief had changed the venue of the bloc's informal foreign affairs council to Brussels from Budapest was "not of great importance". The informal meeting is always held in the country holding the presidency.

"It didn't matter to me then, and it doesn't matter now," he said. He insisted that those in favour of holding the meeting in Budapest outweighed those against.

When asked by ATV on the Joe Biden's decision to step back from the presidential race, Szijjarto said what is important is that if the former president was re-elected, then there would be a huge chance of bringing peace to the world, including Europe. Prior to that, the government has not commented on Joe Biden's announcement.