BUDAPEST: Hungary’s outgoing government signals it’s ready to unblock the European Union’s (EU) €90bil (US$106bil) loan to Ukraine as soon as this week just as the new leadership in Budapest kicked off intensive talks with Brussels to tap its own stalled funding.
Hungary has information from Ukraine, “via mediation from Brussels”, that Russian oil flows may resume on the Druzhba pipeline, outgoing Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Sunday.
Orban has conditioned the aid for Ukraine on the resumption of supplies via the pipeline that was damaged in a Russian attack in late January.
A spokesperson for the European Commission confirmed that the EU’s executive arm had “been in contact with the concerned parties to facilitate resuming of oil supplies through the Druzhba pipeline”, adding that all EU countries should honour their commitments regarding the €90bil loan agreed at December’s leaders’ summit.
The funds are critical for Ukraine to stay in the fight more than four years after Russia’s full-scale invasion and with the United States effectively ending its assistance since Donald Trump returned to office in 2025.
Kyiv has enough money to cover its needs only until June, Bloomberg reported last month.
Hungary may unblock the Ukraine aid as soon as tomorrow at a meeting of EU envoys, if oil flows resume by then, Janos Boka, Orban’s EU Affairs Minister, said in a separate post.
“Hungary’s position hasn’t changed,” Orban said. “If there’s oil, there’s money.”
Hungary’s incoming leader, Peter Magyar, whose Tisza party scored a landslide election win a week ago that ended Orban’s 16-year rule, also said last Friday that Druzhba flows may resume this week, based on information he received from Hungarian oil company Mol Nyrt chairman and chief executive officer Zsolt Hernadi.
Hernadi is due in Moscow this week to discuss Russian oil supplies once the pipeline is operational again, Magyar said after their meeting.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said Druzhba supplies may resume by the end of April.
Hungary removing its block on the EU’s Ukraine loan would go a long way to restoring goodwill between Budapest and Brussels, years after the EU suspended more than US$20bil in Hungary’s funding due to corruption and rule of law concerns under Orban.
Magyar has vowed to bring Hungary back to the European fold and to satisfy EU conditions to shore up the rule of law, including on judicial independence, anti-graft steps as well as academic and media freedoms.
The in-coming Prime Minister will have the legislative powers to move quickly after winning a two-thirds parliamentary majority that will allow his Tisza party to single-handedly pass any law without opposition support. — Bloomberg
