Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has reiterated concerns over EU plans to use frozen Russian assets to finance loans for Ukraine, warning the move would amount to a “war provocation of an unprecedented scale.”
"The EU is disregarding its own rules by planning to finance this package through frozen Russian assets," Peter Szijjarto posted on Monday on X.
About $246 billion in Russian assets are frozen in the EU, and the bloc proposes using the funds to support Ukraine.
Szijjarto said the move would raise the risk of escalation “to a level not seen in the past three years,” adding that freezing Russian assets was already a significant step, but using those assets “goes even further.”
“Therefore, at today’s Foreign Affairs Council, I will make it clear that for Hungary, the risk of further escalation is unacceptable," he said. "Simply because if a war were to break out between Europe and Russia, Europe would not survive it."
EU foreign affairs ministers are meeting in Brussels on Monday, and the European Commission is pushing member states to reach an agreement on the funds at a European Council summit later this week.
However, most of the frozen Russian assets are held by Belgian bank Euroclear, and Belgium has repeatedly raised concerns about the plan.
67% of Belgians oppose the move
Some two-thirds of Belgians reject an EU plan to use frozen Russian assets to fund a loan to Ukraine, according to a new survey by major Belgian media outlets.
Supporting Prime Minister Bart De Wever’s position, 67 percent of Belgians said the government should not agree to release the frozen Russian assets, according to the survey done jointly by RTL Info, IPSOS, and Le Soir, whose results were released on Monday.
Concerns about the potential systemic risk for Belgium are thought to lie behind most of the opposition to the plan.
Several EU member states, including Belgium, have raised legal concerns, noting that most of the contested assets are held at Euroclear in Brussels, the Belgian capital and de facto seat of the EU.
Some 22 percent of Belgians support using the Russian assets, while 11 percent said they were not interested in the issue.
Russia's central bank called the plan illegal and reserved the right to take any measures necessary to protect its interests.
On Friday, the bloc moved to "indefinitely immobilise" Russian assets, while EU leaders are set to decide on allocating the funds to Ukraine at a two-day Brussels summit starting Thursday.
