EU member states agreed Friday to prolong sanctions on more than 2,400 individuals and entities over Russia’s war on Ukraine after a delay from Hungary.
Budapest -- the friendliest country to Russia in the EU -- agreed to renew the sanctions for a further six months after four people were removed from the list, officials said.
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“Our determination to support Ukraine is decisive,” European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen posted on X after the extension was agreed.
Those set to have the asset freezes and visa bans lifted were businessmen Vladimir Rashevsky and Vyacheslav Kantor, Russian sports minister Mikhail Degtyarev and the sister of oligarch Alisher Usmanov, diplomats said.
The hold-up from Budapest comes as US President Donald Trump -- a close partner of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban -- is pressing for a peace deal in Ukraine.
Hungary had said it didn’t want to extend the sanctions -- which include Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov -- for fear of making negotiations more “difficult”.
The sanctions needed to be renewed with the backing of the bloc’s 27 member states by March 15, or they would lapse.
Hungary’s delay came after it held out until the last minute on extending sweeping sanctions in January on Russia’s economy over a dispute with Kyiv on gas supplies.
Hungary finally allowed those to be extended after getting reassurances from Brussels that it would look at Budapest’s grievances.
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