Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán threatened to block Europe’s €90 billion ($105 billion) loan to Ukraine on Friday, until oil transit to Hungary is resumed via Russia’s Druzhba pipeline.
Kyiv says the Druzhba pipeline, which runs from Russia through its territory to Slovakia and Hungary, is shut due to damage caused by a Russian missile strike near Ukraine’s western city of Brody.
“Extraordinary!” Orbán wrote on Facebook. “As long as Ukraine blocks the Friendship oil pipeline, Hungary will block the 90 billion euro Ukrainian war loan. We cannot be blackmailed!”
His remarks echoed those of his Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó, who said on X that Ukraine was “breaching its commitments to the European Union” by “blocking” the Russian pipeline.
“Ukraine is blackmailing Hungary by halting oil transit in coordination with Brussels and the Hungarian opposition to create supply disruptions in Hungary and push fuel prices higher before the elections,” he continued.
As an EU member state, Hungary has the right to veto the bloc’s collective decisions – including regarding financial assistance to Ukraine – despite having secured an exemption from contributing to the loan.
However, the EU is not without options. The European Commission previously hoped to fund Ukraine’s defense through a “reparations loan” backed by Russian assets frozen in Europe, a proposal that Hungary would certainly have vetoed. While attempting to secure support for the plan, EU ambassadors found a loophole which would have prevented that scenario.
Orbán’s far-right populist government is facing its first serious challenge in nearly 16 years, from opposition leader Péter Magyar’s Tisza party. Orbán’s supporters fear he may lose his grip on power in the country’s next parliamentary elections, due to be held on Apr. 12.
On Thursday, Magyar called for Orbán to apologize for an apparently AI-generated video of a Hungarian child witnessing her father being summarily executed by a man wearing a Nazi-style uniform.
Since Orbán’s ruling Fidesz party began trailing Tisza in the polls, it has increasingly promoted a narrative that Brussels is attempting to drag Hungary into a fruitless and bloody war against Russia.