US EditionEU Leaders Accuse Orbán of Disloyalty and Blackmail After He Blocks €90 Billion Ukraine Loan
Orbán uses Hungary's veto on a €90 billion EU loan to Ukraine as leverage over oil pipeline disputes, with Kyiv facing urgent funding needs by early May, EU leaders say.
- On Thursday, European Union leaders failed to break Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's veto on a €90 billion loan package for Ukraine, with officials accusing him of a "gross act of disloyalty" tantamount to blackmail.
- Orban is using the loan as leverage in a dispute over the Druzhba pipeline, which carries Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia. "No oil = no money," Orban posted on X after the talks, refusing to budge.
- In a video address to EU leaders, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the loan "critical" and "a resource to protect lives," as Kyiv faces a budget shortfall four years into the war requiring funds by early May.
- German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called the veto "gross disloyalty," while European Council President Antonio Costa declared "no one can blackmail the European Council." Leaders asked the European Commission to examine possible workarounds to bypass Orban's blockade.
- European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the bloc would "deliver" funds to Ukraine "one way or the other," though officials warned Kyiv could run short of money within weeks without fresh assistance.
16 Articles
16 Articles
The Twenty-seven had agreed in December on a crucial aid to Kiev, which must continue to finance its war effort, but the Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, in the campaign for his re-election, refused to lift his blockage.
Viktor Orbán is once again blocking the European Union's aid to Ukraine – an unscrupulous manoeuvre in the Hungarian election campaign. The indignation in Brussels is quite rightly great, but the rest of the EU countries must finally draw conclusions.
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European leaders expect Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to be re-elected in the high-stakes parliamentary election scheduled for 12 April. According to one EU official cited by POLITICO Brussels, during Thursday’s European Council summit, ‘many of the leaders in the summit room’ believed that it is ‘likely’ that Orbán will secure his fifth consecutive victory. During the summit, EU leaders tried to convince the Hungarian prime minister to …
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