Fico backs Orban, considers joining Hungary in blocking 90 billion EU loan for Ukraine
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Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said on March 21 that Slovakia could consider blocking a 90-billion-euro EU loan for Ukraine in the future, while defending Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s opposition to the measure.
The so-called Ukraine Support Loan, preliminarily approved in December 2025, covers two-thirds of Ukraine's needs for 2026–2027, and earmarks 30 billion euros ($36 billion) for budget support and 60 billion euros ($71 billion) for military needs.
The dispute comes as Hungary and Slovakia have accused Kyiv of slow progress on repairing the Druzhba pipeline, after it was damaged in late January by a Russian strike in Western Ukraine.
The Druzhba pipeline, one of the world's largest oil networks with a capacity of about two million barrels per day, remains a critical supply route for Hungary and Slovakia — the only EU countries still importing Russian crude through the system.
Speaking in an interview cited by Slovak media, Fico argued that halting Russian oil supplies through the Druzhba pipeline was politically motivated and harmful to Europe’s energy security.
“Viktor Orban is politically right," Fico said. "Zelensky cannot run the European Union."
Fico said there may be a scenario in which Slovakia joins Hungary in blocking the loan, though he did not specify under what conditions such a move would happen.
He also claimed that Russian oil would "strengthen the energy security” of the European continent.
The Slovak prime minister then addressed why he refused to travel to Ukraine for a meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky, saying he was not a “suicidal person.”
Landlocked and sharing a border with Ukraine, the two countries have long relied on Russian oil and gas.
