Orbán called the blocking of the European Union’s loan for Ukraine legitimate

Hungary has every right to block the European Union’s provision of a €90 billion loan to Ukraine.

This was stated by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán after the EU summit in Brussels.

Orbán noted that when the EU Council decided in December to allocate this money to the Ukrainians, three countries — Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic — refused to take part in the initiative. Since then, however, the situation has changed because, according to him, the Ukrainians imposed an oil blockade on Hungary.

“At the same time, the decision-making process on granting the loan has not yet been fully completed, and from a legal point of view the situation is absolutely clear: we have the right to do this,” Orbán said.

He added that Brussels wants to provide Kyiv with the loan through joint borrowing by EU member states, but this requires unanimous approval of another separate document, which Hungary and Slovakia refuse to give.

On March 19, the European Union summit failed to approve a military loan to Ukraine. The decision was blocked by Hungary and Slovakia, which justified their position by saying that Ukraine had halted supplies of Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline. According to Politico, Brussels intends to “rein in” Orbán and is preparing “inevitable payback” for him.