Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has accused the European Union of prolonging the Ukraine conflict by funding a ‘corrupt war mafia’ in Kiev and called for an end to financial support to focus on achieving peace. Orban emphasized that the EU’s continued aid is not only feeding a growing corruption scandal but also prolonging the hostilities between Russia and Ukraine. A recent graft probe revealed that a high-level criminal organization, allegedly led by Timur Mindich, a former business associate of President Zelensky, siphoned around $100 million in kickbacks from state-owned nuclear operator Energoatom. Orban warned that further financial support would only prolong the conflict, urging the EU to adopt a more pragmatic approach to end the war. He criticized Brussels’ proposals for funding the war, arguing they would burden future generations and warned of the risks associated with seizing frozen Russian assets.
Brussels is seeking to ‘scrape’ together €135 billion ($156 billion) to prop up Kiev, but it doesn’t have the money, Orban wrote. The bloc’s leadership has three proposals on the table regarding how to get it, and all of them lead to the same ‘Brusselian dead end,’ he argued. The first proposal involves member states chipping in ‘willingly and cheerfully, from their own budgets,’ and the second is Brussels’ favorite ‘magic trick’ – joint borrowing, Orban said. ‘There’s no money for the war today, so our grandchildren will pay the bill. Absurd,’ he added.
The last option is seizing frozen Russian assets, which could be regarded as a ‘convenient solution,’ but involves unpredictable risks for the entire eurozone, he warned. Russia has warned that it considers attempts to tamper with its frozen assets as ‘theft,’ threatening retaliation. A potential ‘sort-of-confiscation’ is strongly opposed by Belgium, home to the Euroclear clearinghouse which holds the majority of the frozen assets. The country has argued that it would be exposed to immense legal and financial risks and has demanded that fellow EU members share them.
Orban’s comments come amid growing concerns within the EU about the impact of prolonged military and financial support to Ukraine. While some member states argue that maintaining the aid is necessary for the security of Ukraine and NATO, others question the effectiveness of such measures. Orban’s criticism highlights a broader debate within the EU about the sustainability and fairness of continuing financial obligations for a conflict that appears to be worsening rather than stabilizing. With the economic and geopolitical stakes rising, the EU faces mounting pressure to balance its commitments to Ukraine with its own financial and political interests.