Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for free
Your guide to what the 2024 US election means for Washington and the world
Hungary’s Viktor Orbán has signalled he could veto the renewal of EU sanctions against Russia unless Ukraine guarantees the reopening of Russian gas exports through its territory.
“The issue of extending the sanctions is on the agenda,” the Hungarian premier told state radio on Friday. “I pulled the handbrake and asked the European leaders to understand that this cannot continue . . . The Ukrainians want help, for example, to sanction the Russians. Then please reopen the gas route.”
The EU’s sanctions imposed on Russia in response to its full-scale invasion of Ukraine will lapse on January 31, unless the bloc unanimously decides to renew them.
Ambassadors on Friday discussed the rollover, which includes hundreds of billions of euros worth of Russian assets frozen in the EU, but the Hungarian envoy refused to back it. He made three demands, according to two people briefed on the talks. One was for Ukraine to resume Russian gas transit and the others were for the pipelines still carrying Russian oil and gas to Europe via Belarus and Turkey to be safeguarded against Ukrainian drone attacks.
The sanctions extension will be discussed by foreign affairs ministers on Monday.
If Orbán makes good on his threat, the EU could be forced to re-engineer at least some of the sanctions bilaterally, potentially enlisting the Belgian king to keep €190bn worth of Russian assets frozen in Belgium.
Hungary’s demands come at a time when US President Donald Trump ratcheted up pressure on Moscow to resolve the Ukraine conflict soon or face a host of new sanctions from his administration.
Budapest would discuss the sanctions with the US before making a move on the rollover of the EU measures, said Hungarian foreign minister Péter Szijjártó.
EU diplomats told the Financial Times that Orbán would probably end up approving the rollover, after seeking to extract more concessions from the bloc — as he has often done in the past when an extension deadline was looming.
“We’ve been here before,” said one official. “Ukraine needs all our support right now.”
They pointed out that Trump had threatened tougher sanctions on Moscow and called on the EU to buy American oil and gas, not Russian. “Orbán is a bit tone deaf,” they added. However, they said if he dug in and blocked the rollover, “it would have great consequences . . . for our ability to deal with Russia”.
Orbán complained that the sanctions have increased energy and other costs for the Hungarian economy by €19bn since 2022, with Ukraine further compounding the issue by refusing to renew a gas transit agreement with Gazprom this year. Hungary expected Kyiv to safeguard all remaining routes of Russian energy imports, he said.
The Hungarian premier could strike an alliance on sanctions with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who also pushes for the resumption of Russian gas imports via Ukraine. The two leaders have met in recent weeks and have each travelled to Moscow to secure Russian gas imports for their countries.
Fico said the expiry of the gas transit contract via Ukraine would cost Slovakia €1bn a year in higher gas prices and €500mn in lost transit fees, as the pipeline also crossed Slovak territory.
Slovakia, Hungary and Austria were the last EU countries to import gas via Ukraine, while the rest of the bloc made efforts to wean itself off Russian fuels.
With the Ukraine transit deal expiry date looming, Hungary struck a deal with Turkey to import Russian gas via the last remaining gas pipeline to Europe. Slovakia has also opened negotiations with Ankara and Budapest to secure imports via that route. Austria ceased importing Russian gas last year due to a different legal dispute with Gazprom.
A European Commission spokeswoman said it had not seen any price rises as a result of the transit deal ending but was in contact with member states.
Additional reporting by Alice Hancock and Andy Bounds in Brussels and Raphael Minder in Warsaw
