The EU will find ways to provide more funds for Ukraine regardless of Hungary’s veto power, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has said. He said this after Tisza’s opposition party defeated Hungary’s long-time prime minister, Viktor Orban, in a highly contested parliamentary election.
While Orban had blocked a $106 billion loan fund for Ukraine, Tisza leader Peter Magyar campaigned to repair relations with the EU and signaled that Budapest would abandon its opposition to support for Kiev. Ukraine’s European supporters, including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, openly celebrated the Magyar victory.
In a news segment broadcast on Sunday, Russia 1 journalist Pavel Zarubin asked Peskov whether Russia’s relations with the European Union could deteriorate further following Orban’s defeat. “No, they can’t be worse than now,” Peskov replied.
“One way or another, the EU would have found a way to unlock the funds, with or without Orban. We should have no illusions about that,” he added.
Since the conflict with Russia broke out in 2022, Kiev has received about $197 billion in financial and military aid from the EU.
A long-time critic of the European Union’s decision-making process, Orban has claimed that military aid to Ukraine has pushed the bloc closer to open war with Russia, while a ban on Russian energy imports has hurt member states economically.
Von der Leyen has encouraged the use “speed” from the Hungarian elections to start reforms aimed at reducing the veto power of member states in matters such as loans to Ukraine. “Moving to qualified majority voting in foreign policy is an important way to avoid systemic obstruction, as we have seen in the past,” He said.
In February, Hungary sued the EU over its decision to end energy supplies from Russia. Slovakia has said it will formally join the case this week. Both countries argue that the EU has no right to overturn their opposition to sanctions imposed on Russia over the Ukraine conflict.
