EU plan to steal Russian assets constitutes 'declaration of war' - Orban

RT
Mon, 15 Dec 2025 12:12 UTC

© Beata Zawrzel/NurPhoto/Corbis/Getty Images/KJN

Hungarian PM Victor Orban • Slovak PM Robert Fico

Tapping the funds by overriding Budapest's opposition is unlawful and helps fuel the Ukraine conflict, Hungary's PM has said.

Any move by the EU to seize frozen Russian funds without Budapest's consent and in breach of European law would amount to a "declaration of war," Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said.

The EU voted last week to keep Russian central bank assets frozen temporarily, using emergency powers to bypass unanimity despite objections from some member states. The European Commission, and its head Ursula von der Leyen, want to use the $246 billion to back a "reparations loan" to Kiev - a scheme opposed by several countries, including Hungary and Slovakia. Russia has condemned the freeze as illegal and called any use of the funds "theft," warning of economic and legal consequences.

In a social media post, Orban stated on Saturday that EU officials were trying to seize frozen Russian assets by "bypassing Hungary" and "raping European law in broad daylight," which he said would amount to a "declaration of war." He accused Brussels of fueling the conflict, adding that Hungary "will not play along" in what he called a "twisted" scheme.

"I have never seen a seizure of 200 to 300 billion euros from a country that did not trigger some form of response," Orban said.

According to the Hungarian leader, "three Germans are calling the shots." He accused German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, European People's Party leader Manfred Weber and von der Leyen of steering the EU "into a dead end" or "straight into a wall."

The vote put forward by von der Leyen cast the handling of frozen Russian assets as an economic emergency rather than a sanctions policy, enabling the EC to use Article 122 of the EU treaties to adopt the decision via a qualified majority vote instead of unanimity and sidestep veto threats.

Belgium, where most of the funds are held, has also raised concerns due to the legal and financial risks. The open-ended freeze is designed in part to pressure Brussels and secure its backing for the EU plan to seize Russian funds.

Kirill Dmitriev, the Russian president's advisor on international investment matters, said "panicked" EU officials were miscalculating, writing on X: "Russia will win in court and get them back... EU/€/Euroclear will suffer," and warning it would undermine the reserve system and raise costs.

Comment: EU country's PM calls out Ukrainian corruption:

Ukraine is a "black hole" of corruption that has swallowed billions of euros sent by the European Union, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has said.

In a social media post accompanying an interview on Saturday with Slovensko Radio, Fico said there had been "shouts" when he previously warned to "watch out for corruption" in Kiev, arguing the EU did not know where the €177 billion ($208 billion) it has given Ukraine had ended up.

He said he wanted no part of a new plan to provide a further aid for Ukraine, "above all" for arms, and stressed he would never back any financial package aimed at buying weapons that would "kill more people."

Fico, who last year survived an assassination attempt by a pro-Ukraine activist, said:

"If you say at meetings of EU leaders that you do not want to provide money for weapons, then you become a villain, because there is an opinion about the obligation to provide money for weapons."

Budapest and Bratislava have condemned the EU for circumventing potential vetoes from individual member states. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban accused the "Brussels dictatorship" of "systematically raping European law."

Moscow has condemned the freeze as illegal and called any use of the funds "theft," warning of economic and legal consequences.

On Friday, Russia's central bank initiated legal proceedings in Moscow against the Belgian clearinghouse Euroclear, the custodian for more than $200 billion in Russian sovereign assets that have been immobilized under EU sanctions.