While Meloni emphasized in the meeting that she personally still supported the loan being channeled to Ukraine immediately, she said she understood the position of Orbán, who faces an election next month, according to the five diplomats, representing four different European countries.
One of the five diplomats quoted Meloni as saying that Orbán’s stance was “normal” because “things change” and that “if I were in the same situation I would understand it.”
The Italian government denied that. “The sentence attributed to the prime minister is totally baseless” an official from Meloni’s office in Rome said.
All diplomats quoted in this article were granted anonymity to allow them to speak freely about the discussions, which were not held in public. None of them were in the room because it was almost exclusively only leaders present. Those leaders briefed diplomats.
Oil link
Hungary and Slovakia are blocking the release of the funds, which needs all EU governments to approve. Budapest has linked its consent to demands Ukraine repair the Druzhba pipeline, which brings Russian oil to Hungary and was damaged by a Russian drone in January, weeks after all 27 EU countries backed the loan plan.
Orbán has accused Kyiv of deliberately delaying the repairs. The EU has said the issues of the loan and the pipeline are not connected.