🇭🇺🇪🇺🇺🇦 Hungary unwilling to lift Russian frozen asset sanctions until US election‼️
The EU’s plan to secure a 35 billion euro loan for Ukraine includes a key change in the sanctions regime that Hungary has so far been blocking.
Hungary confirmed on Tuesday that it will not support any changes to EU sanctions on Russia’s immobilized assets until the upcoming United States elections, a move that G7 allies require guarantees for in order to provide a 45 billion euro (50 billion dollar) loan to Ukraine.
The G7 project aims to use unexpected profits from Russian frozen assets to gradually repay the loan given to Kyiv, relieving the allies from the burden of footing the bill.
The European Commission has proposed a contribution of up to 35 billion euros, depending on how much the other Western allies offer.
While the 35 billion euro loan is expected to be agreed upon by member states in the coming days due to the qualified majority rule, Budapest argues that the crucial change in the sanctions regime requiring unanimous decision must wait until November 5.
“We believe that this issue – the extension of Russian sanctions – should be decided after the US elections. That was the Hungarian position,” said Hungary’s Finance Minister Mihály Varga on Tuesday after a ministerial meeting in Luxembourg.
Varga argued that the two presidential candidates – Kamala Harris and Donald Trump – support two opposite approaches in handling Russian aggressive war, and that the bloc must decide its further steps based on who the American people choose.
“We need to see which direction the future American government takes on this issue,” Varga told reporters. “It’s visible from the presidential election and the candidates’ campaigns: there are two completely different ways to solve this problem. One leads towards peace. The other leads towards continued war.”
