Hungary raised an objection to the European Union’s plan to loan 90 billion euros to Ukraine during a meeting of ambassadors on Friday, an unexpected hurdle that could make funneling needed money to Kyiv more difficult than anticipated.
The Hungarian ambassador caused a delay in the plan — which would fund the loan by issuing debt backed by the E.U. budget — according to two European diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss diplomacy. The objection was previously reported by the Financial Times.
Peter Szijjarto, Hungary’s minister of foreign affairs and trade, then confirmed the country’s opposition on social media on Friday evening.
“We are blocking the €90 billion EU loan for Ukraine until oil transit to Hungary via the Druzhba pipeline resumes,” Mr. Szijjarto wrote.
The Druzhba pipeline, which runs through Ukraine and supplies Russian crude oil to Hungary and Slovakia, is undergoing disruptions after what Ukraine says was a Russian attack. Hungary and Slovakia have accused Ukraine of deliberately restricting oil supplies.
“Ukraine is blackmailing Hungary by halting oil transit in coordination with Brussels,” Mr. Szijjarto wrote, adding, “We will not give in to this blackmail.”
It’s not yet clear whether Hungary can have its concerns assuaged in some way, or whether it will continue to object.
A spokeswoman for the Hungarian ambassador referred to Mr. Szijjarto’s post when asked for comment.
The move comes just days before the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and at a time when Kyiv is desperately in need of fresh funding. It also comes not long before an April election that could topple Hungary’s president, Viktor Orban, a fervent Ukraine critic and a perennial obstacle to European Union decision-making.
The European Union agreed in December to make its €90 billion — or about $106 billion — loan to Ukraine by borrowing against space in the bloc’s own budget. Doing that requires unanimous approval of all 27 member nations. Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic agreed to the plan on the condition that they would never have to pay costs related to the loan.
Even that was a backup option: European leaders had initially hoped to borrow the loan against frozen Russian assets held in Belgium, but that plan ran into too much opposition.
The legal details of the loan are now being finalized, and the European Union had been hoping to disperse the funds to Ukraine early in the second quarter, which begins in April. But that timeline has collided with both the pipeline issue and the political cycle in Hungary, where Mr. Orban has escalated his criticism of Ukraine ahead of the election.
Lasting Hungarian opposition could delay or even stop the money. The two diplomats said it is not yet clear whether the situation will become that serious.
“There was unanimous political agreement to provide €90 billion in decisive support for Ukraine’s budgetary and military needs over the next two years,” said Balazs Ujvari, a spokesman at the European Commission, the European Union’s executive arm. “We expect all member states to honor that political agreement.”
Jeanna Smialek is the Brussels bureau chief for The Times.
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