Hungary’s pro-Russian veto is being seen by diplomats as a temporary glitch, while other states passed a law anyway to loan money to Ukraine. 

Ukraine would get a €90bn EU loan and Russia would face more sanctions despite Hungary’s opposition, EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen pledged in Kyiv on Tuesday (24 February) – the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full invasion.   

Leaders, including Hungary, had “given their word [on the funds]. It cannot be broken,” she said. 

“We will deliver on the loan one way or the other. Let me be very clear, we have different options and we will use them,” she added, without giving details of which leverage she meant.

“We will soon get our 20th sanctions package over the line,” said von der Leyen. 

EU Council president António Costa and EU Parliament president Roberta Metsola joined her in pledging “the first payment will be made as soon as possible”. 

And behind the scenes, EU diplomats and officials were mopping up the “mess” caused by Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán’s “shocking” veto the day before, which he timed to spoil worldwide tributes to Ukrainian victims.  

Orbán vetoed the loan and sanctions on grounds Ukraine conspired to stop his cheap Russian oil in the ‘Druzhba’ pipeline. 

He published a letter to Costa saying “facts are facts”, but the EU Commission and EU foreign service chief Kaja Kallas have said Russia bombed the pipe.

The EU Commission, the Cypriot EU presidency, Ukraine, and Hungary were to hold talks to set things straight before any more 27-ambassadors’ discussions, diplomats told EUobserver on Tuesday. 

“We have to wait a bit, but it [an Orbán deal] will come,” said one EU diplomat. 

A second diplomat said “we are all ready to pass them [the Ukraine measures]” as soon as there was a green light, while a third EU contact called the Orbán situation “slightly messy and quite tragic”.

At the same time, European affairs ministers in the EU Council in Brussels on Tuesday still passed part of the legislation needed to start paying Kyiv in April, in a sign of business as usual.

Orbán is vetoing an amendment to the EU’s long-term budget needed to release the €90bn. 

But EU ministers passed a  “regulation implementing enhanced cooperation” on the Kyiv loan, which was also part of the legal package necessary to go ahead.  

EU majority

They cleared it by 24 states out of 27, excluding the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia, which had opted out of the Ukraine lending scheme.

And Metsola posted a picture of herself singing the “regulation” into life on X. 

“We passed not the loan, but the [legal] framework for it, so we still need to fill it,” an EU diplomat said on Tuesday. 

For his part, Slovakia’s Robert Fico has given Orbán political cover by repeating his Druzhba claims and cutting electricity to Ukraine. 

But neither Fico nor Czech populist prime minister Andrej Babiš have joined Orbán’s 4th-anniversary Russia-veto power-play, leaving him exposed. 

On the world stage, the G7 Western leaders, including the US, also said on Tuesday: “We … reaffirm our unwavering support for Ukraine in defending its territorial integrity”. 

The US has been trying to broker Russia-Ukraine peace talks, but Russian president Vladimir Putin threatened Europe on Tuesday instead. 

Russian message

He accused Western intelligence on TV of helping Ukraine assassinate people in Russia and blow up pipelines.

“There is an absolute need to defeat Russia. They are looking for any way, anything at all. They will push themselves to some extreme point, and then they will regret it,” he said. 

Russia’s ‘SVR’ foreign intelligence service published a warning the same day that France was plotting to give Ukraine a nuclear weapon, prompting Putin’s deputy security chief Dmitry Medvedev to also threaten a nuclear strike on France. 

Meanwhile, Orbán indicated he was hoping for an election gain from the Ukraine fiasco, as well as putting his Putin loyalties on display. 

“Even today, on the anniversary, [Ukrainian] president [Volodomyr] Zelensky is threatening and pressuring Hungary because we refuse to be dragged into the war,” Orbán said on X on Tuesday.

“The entire Hungarian opposition has sided with Ukraine [on the Druzhba veto]. Their goal is chaos … In April, Hungarians must choose Fidesz,” he added, referring to his own party, which is neck-and-neck in polls. 

An EU diplomat said: “From his [Orbán’s] point of view he did what he had to do ahead of the election: He stood up to ‘Disgusting Brussels’.”

But the Hungarian leader also “shamed the EU” on a day that Ukraine needed better, the diplomat said.