Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is once again complaining about EU aid for Kyiv, calling the 27-member bloc, to which Hungary still belongs, a “war mafia”.
The European Commission had determined that Ukraine would require more than €71 billion in financial to cover its budget deficits in 2026, and €51 billion would be allocated towards Kyiv’s military expenses.
The Kremlin-cozy Orbán has long complained about the EU’s plan to use frozen Russian central bank assets to generate a €140 billion “reparations loan” for Ukraine, and about its financial support to Kyiv in general.
When he saw a letter from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Monday, appealing for continued financial support for Ukraine, the prickly anti-Kyiv conservative sounded off again:
“She writes that Ukraine’s financing gap is significant and asks member states to send more money,” Orban wrote. “It’s astonishing. At a time when it has become clear that a war mafia is siphoning off European taxpayers’ money, instead of demanding real oversight or suspending payments, the Commission President suggests we send even more.
“This whole matter is a bit like trying to help an alcoholic by sending them another crate of vodka. Hungary has not lost its common sense.”
Speaking on the sidelines of a EU General Affairs Council meeting on Monday, France’s Minister Delegate for European Affairs Benjamin Haddad made the case for French President Emmanuel Macron’s support of providing those reparations loans.
“We’ve been working with the Commission, with our partners at the European Council, on the proposal on using the Russian frozen assets to fund Ukraine,” Haddad said, “especially Ukraine’s military needs, with a few strict conditions that President Macron laid out at the last European Council.”
“One of these conditions is that the scheme needs to be in compliance with international law,” he said. “That means it’s not a confiscation of the frozen assets, but we can use it as an advance on Russian reparations.”
“Number two,” he added, “is we need to have this guaranteed by the EU budget and work also with other G7 members on the financial guarantee… So we need to have the financial guarantee from member states, from the MFF, and from G7 countries.”