Hungary will block a planned 90-billion-euro ($106-billion) European Union loan to Ukraine until the flow of Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline resumes, Hungary’s Foreign Minister said.

Russian oil shipments to Hungary and Slovakia have been interrupted since January 27, after Ukrainian officials said a Russian drone attack damaged the Druzhba pipeline, which carries Russian crude across Ukrainian territory and into Central Europe.

Hungary and Slovakia, which have both received a temporary exemption from an E.U. policy prohibiting imports of Russian oil, have accused Ukraine — without providing evidence — of deliberately holding up supplies.

In a video posted on social media Friday (February 20, 2026) evening, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó accused Ukraine of “blackmailing” Hungary by failing to restart oil shipments.

He said his government would block a massive interest-free loan the E.U. approved in December to help Kyiv to meet its military and economic needs for the next two years.

“We will not give in to this blackmail. We do not support Ukraine’s war, we will not pay for it,” Mr. Szijjártó said. “As long as Ukraine blocks the resumption of oil supplies to Hungary, Hungary will block European Union decisions that are important and favourable for Ukraine.” Hungary’s decision to block the key funding for Ukraine came two days after it suspended shipments of diesel to its embattled neighbour until oil flows through the Druzhba were resumed, and only days before the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Nearly every country in Europe has significantly reduced or entirely ceased Russian energy imports since Moscow launched its war in Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Yet Hungary — an E.U. and NATO member — has maintained and even increased its supply of Russian oil and gas.

Hungary’s nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has long argued that Russian fossil fuels are indispensable for its economy and that switching to energy sourced from elsewhere would cause an immediate economic collapse — an argument some experts dispute.

Widely seen as the Kremlin’s biggest advocate in the E.U., Orbán has vigorously opposed the bloc’s efforts to sanction Moscow over its invasion and blasted attempts to hit Russia’s energy revenues that help finance the war. His government has frequently threatened to veto E.U. efforts to assist Ukraine.

Not all of the E.U.’s 27 countries agreed to take part in the 90-billion-euro loan package for Ukraine. Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic opposed the plan, but a deal was reached in which they did not block the loan and were promised protection from any financial fallout.

Russian and Ukrainian negotiators launched fresh U.S.-brokered talks on Tuesday (February 17, 2026) in Geneva seeking to end the four-year war, hours after both sides launched a fresh wave of long-range strikes.

U.S. President Donald Trump is seeking to position himself as a peacemaker of the conflict unleashed when Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, but previous rounds of talks mediated by the White House have yielded no breakthroughs.

Moscow’s troops have been grinding through eastern and southern Ukraine for months at immense human cost, betting they can outgun and outlast Kyiv’s stretched army while vowing to fight on if Ukraine does not cave at the negotiating table.

Kyiv is pushing for robust Western-backed security guarantees to ensure Russia does not re-invade, while AFP analysis found its forces had made limited, but rapid, progress in a key section of the front in recent days.

“Security and humanitarian issues are on the agenda,” lead Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov wrote on social media, announcing the meeting had begun. A source in the Russian delegation confirmed to reporters — including AFP — that the talks started.

Mr. Umerov further cooled already low expectations, saying that the delegation was approaching the discussions “without excessive expectations.”

Even before the talks were underway, Ukraine had accused Russia of undermining peace efforts by launching 29 missiles and 396 drones in a series of attacks that authorities said killed at least four people, wounded others, and cut power to tens of thousands in southern Ukraine.

“The extent to which Russia disregards peace efforts: a massive missile and drone strike against Ukraine right before the next round of talks in Geneva,” Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga wrote on social media.

Ukrainian energy officials said a Russian drone strike had killed three staff of a power plant in the frontline town of Sloviansk in eastern Ukraine. Another person was killed in the northeastern Sumy region, local officials said.

Mr. Sybiga repeated Ukraine’s call for allies to exert greater pressure on Russia to negotiate in good faith by applying more sanctions on Moscow.

Trump warning to Kyiv

The talks come after two earlier rounds held this year in Abu Dhabi and several attempts last year to break the deadlock. Russia also said Ukraine had launched a large-scale attack overnight — claimed to have repelled more than 150 drones mainly over southern regions and Crimean peninsula — occupied by the Kremlin in 2014.

Officials said an oil depot in southern Russia caught fire. The Kremlin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists to expect no major news from the first day of talks that are scheduled to roll over into Wednesday (February 18, 2026).

The war has spiralled into Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War II, with hundreds of thousands killed, millions forced to flee their homes in Ukraine and much of the eastern and southern part of the country scarred by war.

Russia occupies around one-fifth of Ukraine — including the Crimean peninsula it seized in 2014 — and areas that Moscow-backed separatists had taken prior to the 2022 invasion.

But its war-time economic worries are mounting, with growth stagnating and a ballooning budget deficit as oil revenues — choked by sanctions — drop to a five-year low.

Deadlock

For the talks in Geneva, the Kremlin reinstated nationalist hawk and former culture minister Vladimir Medinsky as its lead negotiator.

Moscow wants Ukrainian troops to withdraw from swathes of heavily fortified and strategic territory as part of any peace deal. But Kyiv has rejected this deeply unpopular demand, which would be politically and militarily fraught, and has instead demanded security guarantees from the West before agreeing to any proposals with Russia.

“Ukraine better come to the table, fast,” Mr. Trump told reporters ahead of the negotiations. Russia has been slowly capturing territory across the sprawling front line for months.

But Ukrainian forces recently made their fastest gains in two-and-a-half years, recapturing 201 square kilometres (78 square miles) last week, according to an AFP analysis of data from the Institute for the Study of War. The counterattacks likely leveraged the disruption of Russian forces’ access to Starlink, the ISW said.