Vitaliy Portnikov / Vilni Media
Volodymyr Zelensky’s trip to Cyprus for the informal summit of European Union leaders was tied to an obvious victory. After Viktor Orban stopped blocking the decision to allocate money to Ukraine for the next two years, the EU was able to agree on a package of 90 billion euros.
But this is a very strange victory. After all, the decision to allocate this package was made at the previous EU summit, and Viktor Orban was not against it. The compromise with Hungary, as well as Slovakia and the Czech Republic, was that these three countries would not take financial part in the loan.
However, then there was a Russian strike on the “Druzhba” pipeline—and accusations that Ukraine was not hurrying to repair it. Both Orban and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico emphasized that they would continue the loan procedure only after Russian oil flows through “Druzhba” again. Interestingly, Brussels and Kyiv fulfilled the demand of the Hungarian and Slovakian premiers, and Orban and Fico did not yield anything. In Brussels, there was even speculation that Ukraine hurried with restarting “Druzhba” to avoid a potential new blockade from the future Bulgarian Prime Minister and former President of Romania, Rumen Radev, known for his pro-Russian stance during his time in high office.
And there’s a certain schizophrenia in this. On one hand, the European Union allocates tens of billions of dollars to Ukraine to support the macroeconomic balance. And as the Russo-Ukrainian war continues, these expenses will only increase.
On the other hand, Brussels has not been able to do anything for four years with the desire of the Hungarian and Slovak governments to continue purchasing Russian oil. And no significant changes are expected here. The winner of the Hungarian parliamentary elections, Peter Magyar, emphasized that he will try to diversify oil supplies, but he is also not in a hurry to reject Russian raw materials.
This means that Europeans not only finance Ukrainian resistance to Russian aggression, but also spend billions on Russian aggression itself, because we all understand what Putin does with Hungarian and Slovak “oil dollars.” He spends them on war. It’s not even Chinese Yuan—the money from the West is really needed by Putin.
We observe similar schizophrenia now in the United States. Washington continues arms sales under a program involving European purchases of American weapons for Ukraine. However, in recent weeks, the US Treasury has twice issued a license to sell Russian oil from tankers at sea. Admittedly, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says that the United States does not intend to extend this license further. However, before the previous extension of the license, the minister made similar statements, and yet Russia received the desired permission. Permission to receive tens of billions of dollars to replenish the budget and continue the war. And this despite President Donald Trump constantly emphasizing his interest in ending the war of Russia against Ukraine. But the more money Russia has, the longer the war will continue. After all, for Putin, the ability to continue the war primarily means resources.
So, we continue to observe a trend that cannot help but surprise me in recent years. The West helps Ukraine fight aggression with one hand, while financing this aggression with the other. And considering the events in the Middle East and the likelihood of an energy crisis, it’s uncertain that the situation will change significantly in the near future.
This means that the effect of two hands will remain part of the Western approach to the Russo-Ukrainian war. But I’m not even sure it’s just an effect. Sometimes it seems to me that it’s a real sentence—a sentence to common sense.
