Hungary is threatening to withhold its approval for extending E.U. sanctions against Russia if the union doesn’t lift sanctions against eight Russian nationals. European diplomats relayed the demands to Reuters on Tuesday without identifying the Russians in question.

Hungary wants to remove eight individuals from the European Union's Russia sanctions list and receive fresh guarantees on Ukraine gas transit talks before agreeing to renew the restrictions, EU diplomats said.

"The package extends the flight ban to enable the listing of third-country carriers conducting domestic flights within Russia or supplying aviation goods to Russian airlines or fo