{"id":445733,"date":"2026-02-23T11:25:28","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T10:25:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2026\/02\/23\/veto-dellungheria-sul-20esimo-pacchetto-di-sanzioni-alla-russia-ira-di-kallas-nessun-motivo-ma-non-cambieranno-idea\/"},"modified":"2026-02-23T12:20:28","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T11:20:28","slug":"hungary-eu-sanctions-russia-kallas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2026\/02\/23\/hungary-eu-sanctions-russia-kallas\/","title":{"rendered":"Hungary vetoes 20th Russian sanctions package. Kallas: \u2018No reason, yet they won\u2019t budge.\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Brussels – No energy, no new sanctions, and no support either.\u00a0Ukraine and Hungary are at loggerheads,<\/b>\u00a0much to the disappointment of the European Union, which is seeking the green light to the\u00a020th package of restrictive measures against Vladimir Putin’s Russia<\/b><\/a><\/span>. The source of friction between Budapest and Kyiv is\u00a0the halt to Russian oil transit, which is still permitted at the EU level<\/b>. The Druzhba pipeline, which transports Russian crude oil to Hungary and Slovakia via Ukraine, has been damaged by recent\u00a0Russian attacks, and it will not resume deliveries to the two Central European countries because, Budapest claims, Ukraine has no intention of repairing it. Hence, the decision to veto sanctions.<\/p>\n

At tomorrow\u2019s Foreign Affairs Council, the EU aims to adopt the 20th sanctions package. Hungary will block it. Until Ukraine resumes oil transit to Hungary and Slovakia via the Druzhba pipeline, we will not allow decisions important to Kyiv to move forward.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

\u2014 P\u00e9ter Szijj\u00e1rt\u00f3 (@FM_Szijjarto)\u00a022 February 2026<\/b><\/a><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

The Hungarian Foreign Minister,\u00a0P\u00e9ter Szijj\u00e1rt\u00f3,<\/b>\u00a0is adamant: \u00a0”\u00a0Hungary will block it. Until Ukraine resumes oil transit to Hungary and Slovakia via the Druzhba pipeline, (the approval, ed).” Not only that: the Hungarian delegation intends to stand in the way of any file relating to support for Ukraine. “We will not allow decisions important to Kyiv to go ahead,” he clarifies.<\/p>\n

The Hungarian position has annoyed its partners, who are determined to send a message to Moscow on the anniversary of the outbreak of the war of aggression, which falls tomorrow (24 February). The High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Kaja Kallas, publicly expressed this disappointment: “We are doing our best to get this sanctions package approved, but having heard very strong statements from Hungary, I don’t think they will change their position, unfortunately.”<\/p>\n

Kallas shows a sense of resignation, but is also dissatisfied with the issues raised by the Hungarian government, which, in her opinion, “have nothing to do with the twentieth package of sanctions.”<\/b>\u00a0For this reason, the High Representative continues, “we should not link things that are not linked at all,” she adds on her arrival to participate in the work of the\u00a0Foreign Affairs Council<\/span><\/b><\/a><\/span><\/span>, where she is forced to adopt a wait-and-see approach. “Let’s listen to them explain the reasons why they are blocking, and then see if there are any possibilities to overcome them,” she said.<\/p>\n

Once again, energy issues are negatively affecting relations between the European Union and Ukraine and causing tensions within the club of 27 member states.\u00a0A year ago, Slovakia threatened to veto the interruption of Russian gas supplies by Ukraine<\/a><\/span>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Russian oil transit through the Druzhba pipeline, which crosses Ukraine, has been interrupted. Budapest’s ultimatum: restore flows or no support for Kyiv. EU High Representative: “These things are not connected.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":436597,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","show_comment_section":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25707],"tags":[25866,25804,26403,30548],"class_list":["post-445733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-energy-en","tag-sanctionsin","tag-war-russia-in-ukraine-en","tag-ukraine-in-2"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445733","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=445733"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445733\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":445740,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/445733\/revisions\/445740"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/436597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=445733"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=445733"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=445733"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}