Brussels/Ukraine - As diplomats gathered in Brussels, Hungary announced it would block the European Union’s 20th round of sanctions on Russia and hold up a proposed 90-billion-euro loan for Ukraine, citing an ongoing outage of Russian oil shipments via the Druzhba pipeline.
The move comes while Ukraine and its partners prepare to mark the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion, and as renewed attacks in the Odesa region killed two people and injured three others, according to Ukrainian emergency services.
Political impasse over Druzhba
Shipments of Russian crude through the Druzhba pipeline to Hungary and Slovakia have been halted since January 27, after Kyiv reported that a Russian drone struck pipeline equipment inside Ukraine. Both Hungary and Slovakia blame Ukraine for the continued suspension of flows. The two countries host the only remaining European Union refineries that still process Russian oil delivered through Druzhba.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto framed his country’s stance as a response to what he described as hostile Ukrainian behaviour. He said: "We do not hate Ukraine... but the Ukrainian state behaves in a hostile manner towards Hungary." He added bluntly: "The ball is in Ukraine’s court."
In a letter provided to the European Council president, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban labelled the Druzhba outage an "unprovoked act of hostility that undermines the energy security of Hungary" and said he would block the loan until the situation was resolved. Hungary has maintained comparatively warm relations with Moscow, and Orban has pitched the country’s April 12 election as a referendum of sorts - casting it in terms of "war or peace" and accusing opponents of wanting to pull Hungary into the conflict, a charge his rivals deny.
EU meeting and stalled sanctions
EU foreign ministers convened in Brussels amid the row. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas warned that agreement on the proposed new sanctions was unlikely at the meeting, though ministers planned to continue discussions until they reach a deal.
Both Hungary and Slovakia have also threatened to suspend emergency electricity exports to Ukraine if Druzhba oil deliveries do not resume. Operational data from Slovakia’s electricity transmission system operator SEPS indicated that power exports from Slovakia to Ukraine were continuing on Monday.
Germany and Poland urged Hungary to reconsider its position. Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, speaking in Brussels, said: "I would have expected a much greater feeling of solidarity from Hungary for Ukraine. And instead, with the help of state propaganda... the ruling party managed to create a climate of hostility towards the victim of aggression. And now it’s trying to exploit that in the general election. It’s quite shocking." Sikorski specifically referenced Hungary’s historical experience of Soviet invasion in 1956 when appealing for greater solidarity, while accusing Hungarian state messaging of fostering hostility toward Ukraine.
Ukraine leadership and peace talks
As the diplomatic dispute unfolded, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy told the BBC that Russian President Vladimir Putin had "already started" World War Three and called for intensified pressure on Moscow. He added: "The question is how much territory he (Putin) will be able to seize and how to stop him... Russia wants to impose on the world a different way of life and change the lives people have chosen for themselves."
Russian officials deny ambitions for a wider war, describing the operation in Ukraine as a "special military operation" aimed at protecting Russia’s security from what it calls a hostile West. Kyiv and Western capitals reject that framing and say Putin seeks territorial expansion.
Efforts to broker a negotiated settlement have not produced a breakthrough. The most recent talks, held in Geneva on February 17 and 18, failed to deliver a substantive agreement, officials said. Among Moscow’s demands is that Ukraine withdraw from roughly 20% of the eastern Donetsk region that Russia still occupies - a demand Zelenskiy rejected in his BBC interview, saying compliance would mean "abandoning hundreds of thousands of our people who live there".
Frontline and infrastructure developments
On the battlefield, Ukraine’s commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said his forces had "restored control" over 400 square km of territory along a section of the southern frontline. Separately, Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksiy Kuleba reported damage to port infrastructure in the Odesa region after fresh Russian strikes. Russian state media, quoting the Russian Defence Ministry, said Moscow’s forces had successfully hit Ukrainian transport, energy and fuel infrastructure.
Emergency services in Odesa confirmed two deaths and three injuries from overnight drone strikes. The attacks further underline the ongoing pressure on Ukraine’s southern logistical and port capacity, areas critical to both civilian supply lines and export infrastructure.
Financial and energy implications
By tying its approval of the 90-billion-euro support package to the repair of the Druzhba pipeline, Hungary has effectively put a major element of EU financial support for Ukraine on hold. The loan package, which was described in euros and converted in reporting to $106 billion, reflects a sizeable planned financial commitment from the bloc that now faces delay until the pipeline dispute is settled.
The immediate economic implications are concentrated in the energy sector - Russian oil delivered via Druzhba, refineries dependent on that supply, and electricity cross-border flows to Ukraine - but the political impasse has direct consequences for EU fiscal arrangements and the broader support apparatus for Kyiv.
Outlook
EU ministers said they would continue negotiating the sanctions package despite the likely inability to reach consensus during the current meeting in Brussels. With Hungary and Slovakia articulating energy and security concerns tied to the pipeline stoppage, the bloc faces a complex set of interlinked diplomatic, financial and energy-security issues ahead of the conflict’s fourth anniversary.