EU ministers have highlighted Russia’s “cruelty” in Ukraine, marking the anniversary of the Bucha massacre, against a backdrop Hungarian disloyalty and US disinterest.

The Bucha massacre of 400 Ukrainian civilians in April 2025 “has ​come to symbolise the cruelty of Russia’s war”, said EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas on Tuesday (31 March) after visiting a memorial on the eve of the fourth anniversary, together with ministers from 12 EU countries.

Polish foreign minister Radek Sikorski said: “Anybody who claims that [Russian President] Vladimir Putin is not a war criminal should come and see for themselves”.

German foreign minister Johann Wadepuhl said: “We are working together with our partners to enable the legal prosecution of Russian atrocities”.

Italy’s Antonio Tajani also said: “The goal must be a just peace, also to prevent new massacres of innocent civilians”.

Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha contradicted last year’s 28-point US peace proposal, which called for amnesty for Russian war crimes, saying: “There will be no amnesty for Russian criminals, including the highest political and military leadership of the Russian federation”.

The EU delegation to Bucha included foreign ministers from Bulgaria, Estonia, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Croatia, and Sweden, as well as more junior ministers from Cyprus (the EU presidency), Finland, and France, while others sent high officials.

The Kremlin-friendly Hungary and Slovakia sent their Ukraine ambassadors only, in a diplomatic bare minimum.

Hungary also boycotted a declaration on Russian accountability endorsed by all 26 other EU capitals.

This came after it vetoed EU funds for Kyiv and sanctions on Russia, while its foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó, admitted on Tuesday to holding phone talks with Moscow’s EU blacklisted foreign minister Sergei Lavrov on who to delete from EU blacklists.

Kallas had spoken with Szijjártó about it, telling him “that the [EU] council’s internal deliberations must not be disclosed to third parties,” her spokeswoman told press in Brussels the same day.

But neither Szijjártó nor Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán are hiding their loyalties to Moscow any more.

Ukraine “shut down our oil supply to create chaos and influence our elections,” Orbán said on X on Tuesday, referring to the damaged Druzhba pipeline, while not mentioning Bucha.

Hungary’s pro-Russian stance comes amid a pro-Kremlin turn by US president Donald Trump, whose secretary of state, Marco Rubio reacted angrily at Kallas in France last week, after she had asked America for more pressure on Putin.

The Iran war has diverted Western air-defences from Kyiv while enriching Russia via high oil prices.

And the EU’s refusal to join the US attack on Iran was widening the transatlantic rift.

France joined Italy and Spain in declining use of its airspace for Iran arms shipments on Tuesday, prompting a Trump rebuke.

“The Country of France wouldn’t let planes headed to Israel, loaded up with military supplies, fly over French territory. France has been VERY UNHELPFUL … The U.S.A. will REMEMBER!!!,” Trump said on social media.

Rubio told the Al Jazeera broadcaster: “We have countries like Spain, a Nato member that we are pledged to defend, denying us the use of their airspace and bragging about it … and so you ask yourself, well, what is in it [Nato membership] for the United States?”.

The talk of abandoning Nato comes as the Ukraine war creeps ever closer to overspill into EU territory.

If Russia detected that EU states were letting Ukraine use their airspace for drone attack against its Baltic Sea oil facilities, it would strike back, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday.

“We believe that if airspace is being provided for hostile, terrorist activities against the Russian Federation, this will compel us to draw appropriate conclusions and take appropriate measures,” he said.

Peskov belittled Ukrainian president Volodomyr Zelensky’s offer of an Easter-holiday ceasefire, saying: “The Kyiv regime desperately needs a ceasefire, any ceasefire, because the dynamics on the front … indicate that Russian forces — faster, somewhere slower — are advancing”.

Hungary is also blocking the start of Ukraine’s EU accession talks.

But the group-of-12 EU ministers discussed enlargement as well as energy prices with Sybiha in Kyiv on Tuesday, amid fears that Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian oil were aggravating the global, Iran-linked energy crisis.

“Ukraine is Europe, and our place is in the European Union. The current front line is also the line of international law and the shared values we defend,” said Sybiha.

Meanwhile, Polish prime minister Donald Tusk said on X: “Hungary is and will be in the European Union. Victor Orbán and his foreign minister left Europe long ago”.