Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on radio Friday that Hungary needs five years in which it will not comply with a possible EU embargo on Russian Federation oil, Bloomberg news agency reported.

“Orban said he wants a delay of five years – instead of the one-year term currently under consideration – for Hungary before it starts complying with an EU ban on Russian oil,” the agency reported.

He said he rejects the EU’s current proposals to ban Russian Federation oil in the union and compared the realization of such a move to the use of a “nuclear bomb” against the Hungarian economy.

At the same time, Orban noted that his ultimate goal is not to veto against the forthcoming EU sanctions, but to cooperate constructively with the rest of the union on the issue of sanctions. Orban continued that Hungary’s rejection of Russian oil would require billions of dollars in investment and Budapest’s renewed access to its $7.6 billion share of the COVID-19 post-pandemic economic recovery fund, previously blocked due to concerns about the possibility of wrongdoing.

Orban added that he also opposes sanctions on clergy, including Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia.

Earlier, Orban warned that the new EU sanctions package against Russia could undermine the unity of the European Union and cause more harm to Hungary. Thus, the Financial Times explained that it had gained access to a letter Orban sent to the head of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, in which the prime minister indicates that he cannot support the sanctions package “in its current form.”

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó has previously said that the Hungarian authorities are not ready to support the EU’s sixth package of sanctions against Russia in the form in which it is currently being proposed. Szijjártó explained that the proposed sanctions, which include an embargo on Russian oil, would be a major blow to Hungary’s energy security. The idea, according to which Hungary and Slovakia will have a year and a half to give up Russian oil, the minister considers unreasonable, because “we are talking about a short period of time.”

Earlier, the media reported that this week the EU countries’ post-presidents are trying to agree on the sixth package of sanctions against Russia, but so far they cannot reach a consensus. All EU countries, including Hungary, have the right of veto when considering the sanctions.