Hungary, a member of the European Union, announced on Saturday that Russia had started supplying it with more natural gas than agreed in a previous trade deal, following a visit by its foreign minister to Moscow in July, AFP reported.

Hungary’s foreign ministry said trade talks with Moscow had “resulted in an agreement” so that Russia’s Gazprom began supplying “volumes greater than those specified in the contract” on Friday.

“It is the duty of the Hungarian government to ensure the supply of gas to the country, and we will cope with this task,” wrote Tamas Menzer, a senior official of the ministry, on Facebook.

By the end of August, an additional daily volume of 2.6 million cubic meters per day will arrive from the south via the Turkish Stream pipeline, he said, adding that negotiations are underway for September supplies.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó made an early trip to Moscow in July to discuss the purchase of an additional 700 million cubic meters of gas on top of the 4.5 billion cubic meters of gas supplied annually to Budapest before the conflict in Ukraine.

“In light of what we know about the current state of the European market, it is clear that a purchase of such a large volume is not possible without Russian sources,” Menzer said, referring to the Sijjarto trip.

This week, the EU began implementing a plan to cut natural gas consumption by 15 percent to cope with rising energy prices caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

But some countries in the European bloc do not want to strictly follow the plan, which, one way or another, refers to “voluntary reduction of demand.”

Hungary, which depends on gas supplied directly from Russia, has asked for an exemption from consumption cuts.