EU Blasts Hungary's Threat on Sanctions02/23 06:07

   European Union diplomats scrambled Monday to overcome Hungary's veto threats 
as they seek to finalize new sanctions on Russia and a massive new loan for 
Ukraine.

   BRUSSELS (AP) -- European Union diplomats scrambled Monday to overcome 
Hungary's veto threats as they seek to finalize new sanctions on Russia and a 
massive new loan for Ukraine.

   EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the bloc's 27 foreign ministers 
gathering in Brussels would likely not agree on the 20th package of sanctions 
targeting Russia's shadow fleet and energy revenues, which it hoped to pass 
ahead of the fourth anniversary Tuesday of Russia's all-out invasion of Ukraine 
-- a war that has left perhaps 1.8 million dead, wounded or missing.

   "I think there is not going to be progress regarding this today," Kallas 
said before a regular meeting of the EU's foreign ministers in Brussels where 
discussion of the 20th sanctions package was planned.

   The meeting came after Hungary threatened to block the EU sanctions plans 
and to obstruct a 90 billion euro loan for Ukraine until Russian oil deliveries 
to Hungary resume.

   Russian oil shipments to Hungary and Slovakia have been interrupted since 
Jan. 27 after what Ukrainian officials say were Russian drone attacks that 
damaged the Druzhba pipeline, which carries Russian crude across Ukrainian 
territory and into Central Europe. That has led to rising tensions between 
Budapest and Kyiv.

   "No one has the right to put our energy security at risk," Hungarian Foreign 
Minister Pter Szijjrt said as he sparred with journalists in Brussels ahead 
of the meeting.

   Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbn doubled down Monday on his 
unsubstantiated allegation that Ukraine was deliberately holding back shipments 
of Russian oil, and accused Kyiv of seeking to topple his government. He 
referred to the oil supply disruptions as a "Ukrainian oil blockade" led by 
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

   "We have given President Zelenskyy firm and proportionate responses," Orbn 
wrote on social meda. "He, too, must understand: by attacking Hungary, he can 
only lose."

   For the sanctions to pass, the 27-nation bloc needs to reach a unanimous 
decision.

   French Foreign Minister Jean-Nol Barrot said he believes the package of 
sanctions will ultimately be adopted.

   "That is a certainty -- but the question rather is when it will be adopted. 
And from that point of view, everyone must uphold their commitments," Barrot 
said, without explicitly citing Hungary.

   Hungary's looming election hangs over EU talks

   Facing a crucial election in less than two months, Orbn has launched an 
aggressive anti-Ukraine campaign and accused the opposition Tisza party, which 
leads in most polls, of conspiring with the EU and Ukraine to install what he 
called Monday a "pro-Ukraine government aligned with Brussels and Kyiv."

   Poland's Foreign Minister Radosaw Sikorski said he believed Hungary's 
surprise announcement Sunday could really be about Orbn's fierce fight to hold 
onto power.

   Orbn, the EU's longest-serving leader, will face off in April against the 
greatest challenge to his power since he took office in 2010.

   "I would have expected a much greater feeling of solidarity from Hungary for 
Ukraine," Sikorski said in Brussels. "The ruling party managed to create a 
climate of hostility towards the victim of aggression. And then it is now 
trying to exploit that in the general election. It's quite shocking."

   Nearly every country in Europe has significantly reduced or entirely ceased 
Russian energy imports since Moscow launched its full-scale war in Ukraine on 
Feb. 24, 2022. Yet Hungary and Slovakia, both EU and NATO members, have 
maintained and even increased supplies of Russian oil and gas, and received a 
temporary exemption from an EU policy prohibiting imports of Russian oil.

   Raising the pressure on Russia

   German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said he was "astonished by the 
Hungarian position."

   "I don't think it is right if Hungary betrays its own fight for freedom and 
European sovereignty," Wadephul told reporters in Brussels, alluding to 
Hungary's role in the fall of communism in Europe in 1989. "So we will once 
again come to the Hungarians with our arguments, in Budapest but of course also 
here in Brussels, for them to reconsider their position."

   "The German position is very clear: we must now show strength, we must 
support Ukraine sustainably, and we must do exactly what we did last year too: 
continue to raise the pressure on Russia," Wadephul said. He said he is sure 
the EU will agree on a 20th sanctions package eventually.

   Also on the line is a major 90-billion-euro ($106-billion) EU loan to 
Ukraine meant to help Kyiv meet its military and economic needs for the next 
two years. Hungary had agreed to the loan in December.

   "We expect all member states to honor that political agreement in view of 
final adoption of the loan," said Balazs Ujvari, a spokesperson for the 
European Commission.

   "We must release that. We must find an agreement between the member states 
because Ukraine needs this money heavily," said Margus Tsahkna, the foreign 
minister of Estonia, which on Tuesday is celebrating the 108th anniversary 
independence from then-Soviet Russia in 1918.

   The meeting is expected to go late into the evening, said Sweden's foreign 
minister Maria Stenergard. "It is of utmost importance for Ukraine that we have 
these decisions made, and I think it's a disgrace by those who stopped that," 
she said.