{"id":6783,"date":"2026-03-18T00:24:06","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T00:24:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/6783\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T00:24:06","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T00:24:06","slug":"eu-hopes-druzhba-pipeline-deal-pushes-orban-to-back-ukraine-loan-politico","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/6783\/","title":{"rendered":"EU hopes Druzhba pipeline deal pushes Orb\u00e1n to back Ukraine loan \u2013 POLITICO"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a video posted to social media<\/a> after Tuesday’s pipeline news, Orb\u00e1n doubled down, saying “if there is no oil, there is no money” for Ukraine. But a diplomat familiar with Budapest’s thinking hinted there could be room for a breakthrough ahead of Thursday’s summit, given the movement from the EU and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.<\/p>\n

Brussels wants Orb\u00e1n to lift his veto on the delayed 20th package of sanctions against Russia and on the loan to Ukraine<\/a>, which EU leaders, including the Hungarian prime minister, agreed to in December<\/a>. Orb\u00e1n later changed his mind, taking the unprecedented step of backtracking on a decision agreed at a European Council meeting. Two senior EU officials said Brussels believed Orb\u00e1n was looking for an off-ramp.<\/p>\n

Orb\u00e1n has used the spat with Ukraine over the Druzhba pipeline to score political points against his rival, Tisza party leader P\u00e9ter Magyar. Orb\u00e1n accused Kyiv of intentionally delaying repairs to the pipeline, which was damaged during a Russian drone attack in late January, to help Magyar in the election \u2014 a claim Tisza and Kyiv strongly deny.<\/p>\n

Zelenskyy has denied he has been slow-walking repairs to the pipeline for political reasons. He said he didn’t want to fix Druzhba both because Russia has repeatedly attacked it, including during repair works, and because doing so would help fill the Kremlin’s coffers and allow Moscow to continue its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. He has decried the pressure placed on him by his EU allies, accusing them at the weekend<\/a> of “blackmail.”<\/p>\n

But on Tuesday, Zelenskyy finally agreed to the request from Brussels. In a letter to von der Leyen and Costa, Zelenskyy said: “We are undertaking all possible efforts to repair the damage and restore operations” of the pipeline.<\/p>\n

“Ukraine is a reliable energy partner for the European Union and honours fully its commitments,” he added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a video posted to social media after Tuesday’s pipeline news, Orb\u00e1n doubled down, saying “if there is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":6784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[18,834,496,249,319,326,408,2637,2638,390,941,221,279,88,300,57,395,943],"class_list":{"0":"post-6783","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-brussels","8":"tag-brussels","9":"tag-drones","10":"tag-elections","11":"tag-energy","12":"tag-environment","13":"tag-hungary","14":"tag-infrastructure","15":"tag-oil","16":"tag-pipelines","17":"tag-russia","18":"tag-sanctions","19":"tag-slovakia","20":"tag-social-media","21":"tag-ukraine","22":"tag-ursula-von-der-leyen","23":"tag-viktor-orban","24":"tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy","25":"tag-war-in-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116247335071882184","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}