Zelenskiy taunts Hungary's Orban for blocking aid to Ukraine

By Olena Harmash

KYIV, March 5 (Reuters) - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy taunted Hungarian leader Viktor Orban on Thursday for blocking a 90 billion euro ($104 billion) aid package from the European Union critical to Kyiv's survival as it fends off Russia.

Ukraine relies on financial aid from partners to cover its budgetary needs while it funnels most state funds toward defence. EU member Hungary, which has maintained cordial ties with Moscow, vetoed the package this month amid a dispute over oil supplies.

"We hope a certain person in the EU will not keep blocking the 90 billion... and Ukrainian soldiers will have weapons," Zelenskiy told reporters in Kyiv.

"Otherwise, we will give the address of this person to our armed forces, our guys. Let them call him, speak with him in their own language."

The remark will likely heighten the tension between the two leaders during Russia's four-year war on Ukraine, which Orban - who faces elections on April 12 - has been careful not to condemn.

Hungary's veto of the aid package, as well as new EU sanctions on Russia, came in response to what it says was Ukraine deliberately cutting supplies from the Druzhba pipeline carrying Russian crude to Europe.

Kyiv says the oil flows stopped after a Russian attack on pipeline infrastructure in January and it is fixing the damage as fast as it can. Zelenskiy said on Thursday that the Soviet-era pipeline could be operational within a month and a half.

"They (the Russians) are killing us, and we're supposed to give poor little Orban oil, because without it he won't win elections?" he said.

Orban has made the Ukraine war a focal point in his campaign for re-election.

Ukraine's troops are fending off grinding Russian assaults along several parts of the 1,200-kilometer front line, as Kyiv faces U.S. pressure to secure peace while fending off Russian demands to cede land.

Despite being outgunned and outmanned, Kyiv's army has retaken territory in recent weeks, gaining more in February than it lost for the first time since 2023, according to the Finland-based Black Bird Group analysis team.

European foreign ministers had tried unsuccessfully this month to persuade Budapest not to punish Ukraine for delays restarting the pipeline, which also supplies Slovakia, another EU neighbour of Ukraine.

Slovakia, whose Prime Minister Robert Fico is also sympathetic to the Kremlin, said it would refuse requests from Kyiv for emergency electricity supplies until oil flows resume via the Druzhba pipeline.

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