BRUSSELS — The EU will save its Russia sanctions from expiring after officials reached an 11th-hour deal with Hungary, which had threatened to trash the war-time penalties.
The agreement was cemented by Monday morning, six diplomats told POLITICO, allowing the EU’s sanctions to be renewed before a Saturday deadline, which would have allowed Moscow to claw back billions in frozen funds. All 27 EU countries must reauthorize the sanctions every six months.
In exchange for relenting, Hungary got EU officials to make a non-committal statement on the importance of Ukraine’s energy infrastructure — an oblique reference to Budapest’s concerns about the end of Russian gas flowing through Ukraine.
Kremlin-friendly Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had previously vowed to veto the sanctions renewal unless Ukraine agreed to restart Russian gas flows, which ended at the start of the year. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has refused, insisting he will not let Russia “earn additional billions on our blood.”
But while Orbán publicly railed against Russia sanctions, which he claims harm the bloc’s economy, those in the negotiating room told POLITICO it was all bluster — particularly after returning U.S. President Donald Trump menaced the Kremlin with more U.S. sanctions if it didn’t end the war in Ukraine.
Speculation that emergency meetings would be needed or that Belgium’s king would have to activate arcane measures to block the return of frozen Russian funds were dismissed, with officials saying they had no “Plan B” aside from normal reauthorization.
The statement, which top EU diplomat Kaja Kallas read Monday at a meeting of foreign affairs ministers in Brussels, focused mostly on helping Kyiv repair its electricity and gas networks in the face of Russian attacks. Still, there was speculation that Orbán would use it to tell a domestic audience he had gotten the bloc’s executive to weigh in on the matter.
Hungary, as well as Slovakia, have been lobbying for Ukraine to restart a deal that let Moscow ship its gas to Europe via the war-torn country, which expired on Jan. 1. While Brussels insists the end of the shipments has not created any supply issues, the two countries have lost out on gas discounts and on transit fees for pumping the fuel to other countries.
On Saturday, Zelenskyy said Kyiv was ready to ship Azerbaijani gas via its pipeline network as an alternative, provided it didn’t benefit Moscow. “We can use our infrastructure if countries in Europe need gas. But not Russian gas,” he told reporters.
Turkey has also offered to act as a transit hub for the EU, with the country’s EU ambassador, Faruk Kaymakcı, telling POLITICO on Sunday that it could step up exports through the Southern Gas Corridor. In exchange, Turkey wants Brussels to resume high-level discussions on energy cooperation, which were suspended in 2019 over tensions with Cyprus.
Jacopo Barigazzi contributed reporting.
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