Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy will appeal to European leaders to hold firm when they gather in Brussels on Monday for a summit overshadowed by divisions over how to sanction Russian oil, as Kyiv’s eastern holdouts struggle under fierce bombardment.
The 27 European Union national leaders are to meet for a special two-day council to determine the next steps in their collective response at a time when unity is under strain, with Hungary preventing consensus on banning Russian oil as the war grinds on. National capitals have been keen to avoid a public split over the issue and to preserve a common front, but with anger mounting at Hungary particularly from the Russia-bordering Baltic states and Poland, there are risks of an open spat. One EU official described the issue as “difficult and complicated”. “We need to solve in a few days or weeks a system that developed over years,” the official said.
Offers of financial assistance to Budapest to help it transition from Russian oil and an extended phase-in period have not persuaded Viktor Orbán to drop his veto of an oil embargo. The measure was proposed over a month ago as part of a sixth package of sanctions on Russia intended to undermine its ability to wage war.
Under the latest compromise proposal put forward to break the impasse, the massive Druzhba pipeline that brings oil from Russia across eastern Europe through Ukraine and Belarus would be exempt from the ban, while shipped oil would be sanctioned. But ambassadors failed to reach agreement on Sunday and work is expected to continue overnight before they meet again on Monday morning, with some countries concerned about the uneven effect and potential market distortions of a partial ban.
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One senior EU diplomat said there was sympathy for Hungary’s challenges as a landlocked country and that solutions could be found. “There’s a real concern on the Hungarian side and we understand assurances are needed,” the diplomat said. “These are things that could and should be solvable.”
In a nightly address to his citizens this weekend, president Zelenkskiy said he would tell the EU over video link that Russia was imposing “terror on the land of Ukraine”.
“Terror in the energy market of Europe, not just our country. Terror in the food market, on a global scale,” he said. “Only together — all Europeans — will we be able to stop such a policy of such a state.”
Macky Sall, the chairman of the African Union and president of Senegal, is also set to remotely address EU leaders on food security amid rising fears of a hunger crisis because of the destruction and blockade of Ukrainian grain exports, cutting off developing countries from a major source of supply. Russian officials have suggested that food exports will be released if the West drops its sanctions.
There are ongoing EU discussions over whether it could be legally possible to appropriate the assets that have been frozen under the sanctions on Russia, and use them for the aid and reconstruction of Ukraine.
The EU is seeking a way to financially support Ukraine as its government struggles to pay salaries and pensions, and to keep public services going while faced with the economic hammer blow of the war and loss of control of part of its territory. Member states hope to offer €9 billion in liquidity assistance, though there are some differences between the capitals over the technicalities and whether it should be provided in grants or loans.
In his letter to national leaders ahead of the summit, European Council president Charles Michel said that unity was the EU’s “strongest asset” and would remain its “guiding principle”.
