Hungary and Slovakia came through with their promise to block the 20th sanctions package against Russia, as well as oppose the €90 billion loan package the member states had put forth back in December.
It would be a lie to say Brussels was surprised, albeit somewhat disappointed. Still, optimism remains high, even for Kaja Kallas, EU high representative for foreign affairs and security policy and vice president of the European Commission, who believes both countries will come around.
Ahead of the Foreign Affairs Council meeting yesterday, Kallas told press that it is not Ukraine that presents an obstacle to peace.
“Four years into its war, Moscow has failed to achieve any of its strategic objectives. The pressure in the peace talks seems to be falling on Ukraine. But if we want this war to stop and any peace to last, we need to see concessions from Russia,“ she noted.
It is true that Moscow has seemed to flounder while Ukraine surprises, despite years of somewhat inconsistent and lackluster support, especially when it came to sending in long-range missiles and fighter jets. To win a war, more than words are needed.
However, Ukraine is still fighting back Russian forces when most believed Putin would be in Zelensky’s presidential palace back in the spring of 2022.
Even in late 2023, the Wall Street Journal ran the headline “It’s Time to End Magical Thinking About Russia’s Defeat.” But now, we read instead, “Ukraine Shows Russian Victory Is Anything but Inevitable.”
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot remained optimistic regarding the vetoes sanctions package as well. “The question isn’t about whether it will be adopted – it will be, that’s a certainty – but when it will be,” he said, as quoted by Euractiv.
For its part, Hungarian FM Péter Szijjártó repeated the Fidesz government’s frustration “that here in Brussels they usually stand on the side of a non-EU member state against [an] EU member state.”
There is no update on the weekend attack on Russia’s Kaleykino oil pumping station, a key hub for oil exports via the Druzhba pipeline, which had suffered a fire. Nor has Kyiv given any indication that it will resume operations on the stretch of the pipeline going through its territory.
In the meantime, reports have surfaced that Fico’s threat to cut off emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine was “more of a political gesture,” according to one energy analyst who spoke to Kyiv Independent.
The portal wrote that Ukraine’s state grid operator, Ukrenergo, has received new flexible price conditions for emergency imports from Slovakia’s energy regulator. “Ukraine can import emergency energy, but at a different price. It’s nothing serious. Ukraine is not dependent on this emergency assistance. It’s sporadic,” Ukrenergo CEO Vitaliy Zaichenko told the Kyiv Independent, adding that he could not explain Fico’s announcement.
