EU leaders rally in Kyiv as Hungary and Slovakia sabotage support for Ukraine from within

As European leaders gathered in Kyiv on 24 February to mark four years since Russia’s full-scale invasion, two EU member states were working to undermine the very support they came to reaffirm—with Hungary blocking a €90 billion ($106 billion) loan and the 20th sanctions package against Russia, and Slovakia ordering a halt to emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President António Costa, and leaders from Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Croatia, Norway, Sweden, and Iceland arrived in Kyiv in a show of solidarity.

But from Budapest and Bratislava, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico were dismantling that solidarity from the inside.

“This is a real financial guarantee for our security and our resilience,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told European Parliament members in a live address from Kyiv, referring to the frozen loan. “It must be implemented.”

Four weeks from Russian strike to EU sabotage

The veto and electricity threat didn’t come out of nowhere. They capped a month-long escalation that began when Russia struck the Druzhba pipeline at Brody, Lviv Oblast, on 27 January—and escalated through a diesel cutoff, ultimatums, and finally the loan veto and electricity halt, as Budapest and Bratislava retaliated against Kyiv rather than Moscow.

A pledge broken, consequences mounting

The financial stakes are severe. An IMF program worth $8.2 billion, currently under negotiation, is conditional on Kyiv receiving the EU loan. If the loan stays frozen, so does the IMF money. Ukraine faces a budget gap as early as April—the country spends all its tax revenue on defense and depends entirely on foreign financing for pensions, hospitals, and schools.

Fico’s electricity threat, meanwhile, appears largely performative. Ukrenergo CEO Vitaliy Zaichenko told The Kyiv Independent that Slovakia had changed pricing terms rather than genuinely cut supply. “Ukraine can import emergency energy, but at a different price,” he said. “It’s nothing serious.”

Energy experts have noted that EU law and ENTSO-E rules prohibit unilateral suspension of cross-border electricity flows—making a full cutoff legally unenforceable regardless of what Fico announces.

Allies act while vetoes hold

While Orbán and Fico blocked EU-level action, other allies moved forward. The UK unveiled its largest sanctions package since 2022—nearly 300 new designations targeting PJSC Transneft, the pipeline company responsible for transporting over 80% of Russian oil exports and operator of the Russian section of the Druzhba pipeline.

The package also hit 175 companies in the 2Rivers shadow fleet network, nine Russian banks, and three Rosatom subsidiaries.

France and Britain convened the 15th meeting of the Coalition of the Willing, the grouping of some 35 nations—including many European countries, Australia, Japan, and New Zealand—working on post-ceasefire security guarantees for Ukraine. No US representative attended.

European Parliament fires back

European People’s Party MEP Michael Gahler said the attitude of both Orbán and Fico would go down in European history books as “quislings even without occupation.” Greens co-leader Terry Reintke was blunter: “He has become Putin’s cheap servant. He has not only betrayed Ukraine, he has betrayed all of us.”

Even the center-right European Conservatives and Reformists took a veiled shot. Co-leader Nicola Procaccini said history would provide “contempt to whoever is turning their backs to Ukraine, to the freedom, the sense of honour.”

The sole dissenting voice came from the far-right Europe of Sovereign Nations. Slovak MEP Milan Uhrík said his group opposes continued support for Ukraine and doesn’t want “to send any more money, any more weapons there.” His speech was met with boos.