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EU to extend sanctions against Russia, Hungary to back down - Bloomberg
Kyiv • UNN
The EU plans to extend sanctions against Russia, and Hungary will stop its resistance to this decision. In exchange, the EU will provide guarantees for the bloc's energy security.
The European Union, according to people familiar with the situation, is set to agree to extend sanctions against Russia over its war against Ukraine on Monday, and Hungary is ready to end its resistance to the move, Bloomberg reports, UNN writes.
Details
Budapest has been postponing the decision since December, when Prime Minister Viktor Orban told EU leaders that he wanted to wait until after Donald Trump's inauguration before deciding whether to agree to extend the restrictions. EU sanctions must be renewed every six months, and while this is usually a routine decision, it requires the support of all member states.
Trump made it clear that he could increase sanctions against Russia if Vladimir Putin does not come to the negotiating table to discuss how to end the war. However, the Hungarian prime minister later linked the sanctions discussion to his country's energy security and called on the EU to put pressure on Ukraine to resume the transit of Russian gas to Europe. The EU has approved 15 sanctions packages since February 2022.
After failing to agree on an extension at several meetings of the bloc's ambassadors this month, the issue was to be referred to foreign ministers who will meet in Brussels on Monday.
"Hungary is expected to sign the extension on Monday," the sources said.
In exchange, the bloc's executive body "will provide several guarantees in a statement on the bloc's energy security," one of the sources said. The statement will reaffirm the commitment to help Ukraine rebuild and stabilize its infrastructure, as well as resolve the issue of gas and oil supplies, the newspaper writes.
Russian gas stopped flowing to Europe via Ukraine this month after a long-term transit contract expired on December 31. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said over the weekend that Kyiv is ready to allow Azerbaijani gas to be transported through the country.