{"id":786436,"date":"2026-02-24T19:16:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-24T19:16:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/786436\/"},"modified":"2026-02-24T19:16:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-24T19:16:13","slug":"eu-pledges-kyiv-aid-despite-orban-threats-on-war-anniversary-euobserver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/786436\/","title":{"rendered":"EU pledges Kyiv aid despite Orb\u00e1n threats on war anniversary \u2013 EUobserver"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hungary\u2019s pro-Russian veto is being seen by diplomats as a temporary glitch, while other states passed a law anyway to loan money to Ukraine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Ukraine would get a \u20ac90bn EU loan and Russia would face more sanctions despite Hungary\u2019s opposition, EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen pledged in Kyiv on Tuesday (24 February) \u2013 the fourth anniversary of Russia\u2019s full invasion.\u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n

Leaders, including Hungary, had \u201cgiven their word [on the funds]. It cannot be broken,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will deliver on the loan one way or the other. Let me be very clear, we have different options and we will use them,\u201d she added, without giving details of which leverage she meant.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will soon get our 20th sanctions package over the line,\u201d said von der Leyen.\u00a0<\/p>\n

EU Council president Ant\u00f3nio Costa and EU Parliament president Roberta Metsola joined her in pledging \u201cthe first payment will be made as soon as possible\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And behind the scenes, EU diplomats and officials were mopping up the \u201cmess\u201d caused by Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n\u2019s \u201cshocking\u201d veto the day before<\/a>, which he timed to spoil worldwide tributes to Ukrainian victims. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Orb\u00e1n vetoed the loan and sanctions on grounds Ukraine conspired to stop his cheap Russian oil in the \u2018Druzhba\u2019 pipeline.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He published a letter to Costa saying \u201cfacts are facts\u201d, but the EU Commission and EU foreign service chief Kaja Kallas have said Russia bombed the pipe.<\/p>\n

The EU Commission, the Cypriot EU presidency, Ukraine, and Hungary were to hold talks to set things straight before any more 27-ambassadors\u2019 discussions, diplomats told EUobserver on Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have to wait a bit, but it [an Orb\u00e1n deal] will come,\u201d said one EU diplomat.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A second diplomat said \u201cwe are all ready to pass them [the Ukraine measures]\u201d as soon as there was a green light, while a third EU contact called the Orb\u00e1n situation \u201cslightly messy and quite tragic\u201d.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Orb\u00e1n is vetoing an amendment to the EU\u2019s long-term budget needed to release the \u20ac90bn.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But EU ministers passed a\u00a0 \u201cregulation implementing enhanced cooperation\u201d on the Kyiv loan, which was also part of the legal package necessary to go ahead. \u00a0<\/p>\n

EU majority<\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

And Metsola posted a picture of herself singing the \u201cregulation\u201d into life on X.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe passed not the loan, but the [legal] framework for it, so we still need to fill it,\u201d an EU diplomat said on Tuesday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For his part, Slovakia\u2019s Robert Fico has given Orb\u00e1n political cover by repeating his Druzhba claims and cutting electricity to Ukraine.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But neither Fico nor Czech populist prime minister Andrej Babi\u0161 have joined Orb\u00e1n\u2019s 4th-anniversary Russia-veto power-play, leaving him exposed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On the world stage, the G7 Western leaders, including the US, also said on Tuesday: \u201cWe \u2026 reaffirm our unwavering support for Ukraine in defending its territorial integrity\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The US has been trying to broker Russia-Ukraine peace talks, but Russian president Vladimir Putin threatened Europe on Tuesday<\/a> instead.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Russian message<\/strong><\/p>\n

He accused Western intelligence on TV of helping Ukraine assassinate people in Russia and blow up pipelines.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere 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,\u201d he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Russia\u2019s \u2018SVR\u2019 foreign intelligence service published a warning the same day that France was plotting to give Ukraine a nuclear weapon, prompting Putin\u2019s deputy security chief Dmitry Medvedev to also threaten a nuclear strike on France.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Orb\u00e1n indicated he was hoping for an election gain from the Ukraine fiasco, as well as putting his Putin loyalties on display.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cEven today, on the anniversary, [Ukrainian] president [Volodomyr] Zelensky is threatening and pressuring Hungary because we refuse to be dragged into the war,\u201d Orb\u00e1n said on X on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe entire Hungarian opposition has sided with Ukraine [on the Druzhba veto]. Their goal is chaos \u2026 In April, Hungarians must choose Fidesz,\u201d he added, referring to his own party, which is neck-and-neck in polls.\u00a0<\/p>\n

An EU diplomat said: \u201cFrom his [Orb\u00e1n\u2019s] point of view he did what he had to do ahead of the election: He stood up to \u2018Disgusting Brussels\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the Hungarian leader also \u201cshamed the EU\u201d on a day that Ukraine needed better, the diplomat said.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hungary\u2019s pro-Russian veto is being seen by diplomats as a temporary glitch, while other states passed a law…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":786437,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5174],"tags":[217083,2000,299,5187,218484,226348,218481,226346,218479,218482,226347,218480,218483],"class_list":{"0":"post-786436","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-eu","8":"tag-typedefinedterm","9":"tag-eu","10":"tag-europe","11":"tag-european","12":"tag-identifier24","13":"tag-identifier4278","14":"tag-identifier4308","15":"tag-namehungary","16":"tag-namerussia","17":"tag-nameukraine","18":"tag-termcodehungary","19":"tag-termcoderussia","20":"tag-termcodeukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116127215542316557","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786436","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=786436"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/786436\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/786437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=786436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=786436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=786436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}