Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is demanding the reopening of a pipeline carrying Russian gas through Ukraine in return for his support for the extension of European Union sanctions on Russia.
The EU has imposed 15 rounds of economic sanctions on Moscow since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, but there won’t be a 16th unless the bloc’s members unanimously vote to extend the measures by January 31.
But Hungary’s Orban, a right-wing populist and ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has threatened to “pull the handbrake” on EU sanctions if Brussels does not persuade Ukraine to reopen a pipeline that delivers Russian gas to central European countries such as Hungary.
Why does Hungary want Ukraine to reopen the pipeline?
Kyiv turned off the pipeline on January 1 after opting not to renew a transit deal with Russian gas giant Gazprom. Kyiv has said that while it generated revenue from the transit deal, it had been even more profitable for Russia.
Over 80% of Hungary’s gas and oil comes from Russia, and Hungary has actually continued to import Russian gas via an alternative route: the Turkish Stream pipeline that comes up through the Balkans.
Orban has accused the Ukrainian armed forces of attacking this pipeline, too, and has blamed Kyiv and Brussels for economic problems in Hungary. He claims that EU sanctions on Russia have cost Budapest €19 billion ($19.9 billion) in the last three years, more than the country’s annual tax revenues.
“We are asking for help,” he told state radio in a regular interview on Friday. “We are asking [the EU] to make the Ukrainians declare that they will restore the gas route. It’s not right that we continue to bear the economic consequences of sanctions to help Ukraine while they are messing with us.”
How has the EU responded?
Orban has repeatedly delayed previous decisions on EU sanctions on Russia before eventually approving them, usually having extracted some headline-grabbing concessions that play well with his domestic base.
EU officials said they remained hopeful that the Hungarians will relent again this time around, because there is reportedly no plan B.
“We would have a grave issue both internally and in terms of supporting Ukraine,” one EU diplomat admitted to the French AFP news agency, adding: “It would put a bomb in transatlantic relations.”
Orban’s threat to undermine sanctions comes just days after new US President Donald Trump himself threatened more sanctions on Russia if it did not agree to negotiations to end its “ridiculous war” in Ukraine.
EU officials will, therefore, wonder if Orban’s proximity to Trump could undermine his efforts to blackmail Brussels over sanctions.
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