Hungary blocks EU 20th Russia sanctions

Hungary is blocking the European Union’s 20th sanctions package against Russia until oil deliveries through the Druzhba pipeline resume, according to Euronews. Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said Budapest will withhold support at Monday’s EU foreign ministers’ meeting, citing damage to the pipeline after a Russian strike and a halt in supplies to Hungary and Slovakia since late January.

The veto is not limited to sanctions. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said Hungary would also oppose the disbursement of a €90 billion EU “war loan” to Ukraine unless the oil flow returns, Euronews reports. At the same time, Hungary is a critical electricity supplier to Ukraine: nearly half of Ukraine’s electricity imports come from Hungary, and Budapest’s Energy Security Council discussed the issue alongside the sanctions decision.

The episode illustrates how EU “unity” on foreign policy becomes a negotiable asset once decisions require unanimity. When the costs of delay are borne elsewhere—by states prioritising sanctions, by Ukraine’s war financing, or by energy-stressed neighbours—the veto holder can convert procedural power into concrete concessions. In practice, sanctions packages stop being a coherent instrument and start functioning like a marketplace for exemptions, side-payments, and carve-outs.

Ukraine’s foreign ministry called the Hungarian and Slovak threats “ultimatums and blackmail,” arguing they “play into the hands of the aggressor” amid Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid, according to Euronews. Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico has said he may ask the relevant electricity company to stop emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine if oil deliveries do not resume. The resulting loop is circular: Russian strikes damage infrastructure; supply disruptions create leverage; EU members use that leverage to extract terms; and the sanctions regime’s credibility becomes contingent on domestic energy politics.

Budapest argues that Russian fossil fuels are indispensable for its economy and that switching suppliers would be economically ruinous—an assertion some experts dispute, Euronews notes. Yet the more exemptions are granted to keep unanimity intact, the more the sanctions policy itself is rewritten into a patchwork that rewards the countries most willing to threaten blockage.

Oil deliveries through Druzhba stopped at the end of January; the EU’s next sanctions decision is scheduled for Monday.