Hungary’s trillion-forint EU deal may be linked to supporting Russia sanctions — Espreso correspondent

She shared the information on Espreso TV.  

"The extension of existing sanctions and the introduction of new ones — currently, the 17th package of sanctions against Russia is being prepared — definitely require the unanimous vote of all 27 members of the European Union. And here, Orban, as always, threatens a veto. If Slovakia joins him, it will be a problem not only for Ukraine — it will become a problem for all of Europe, for the whole world," Vysotska emphasized.

According to her, lifting sanctions on Putin would also mean unfreezing Russian assets. This would give him more funds to continue the war against Ukraine, which she called a potential catastrophe.

"In fact, there are already some rumors — though I heard them from the Ukrainian side, and so far they have not been confirmed in Europe — that this week, when the foreign ministers of EU countries come to Ukraine (and they are planning to come, possibly on May 9, to hold a meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Ukraine), the Ukrainian side very much hopes that it will be during this symbolic meeting that a new package of sanctions will be announced. At the very least, there will be an announcement of reaching unanimity or of a developed scheme to force Hungary, which is currently the only one blocking the issue, to agree."

"But there is one point. Yesterday I read the Twitter account of Orban's spokesperson, and he quoted Orban's speech before the Hungarian parliament, where Orban said that this year Hungary will receive a trillion forints from Europe. He said that this is not European money, but funds that belong to Hungary itself. And I thought: perhaps, if Orban is announcing this trillion forints, this is a kind of payment for him agreeing to extend the sanctions or even to introduce a new package against Russia. A trillion forints is almost 2.5 billion euros. For Hungary, this is a large sum," Vysotska suggested.

• Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister Stefanishyna reported that Ukraine and Hungary will begin regular consultations from May 12 to remove all of Budapest's reservations for starting negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the EU.
• On May 2, Orban stated that Hungary would go bankrupt due to Ukraine's possible accession to the EU.
• Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said that Volodymyr Zelenskyy wants to see a "pro-Ukraine" government in Hungary, but this will not happen.