Ukraine-Russia war latest: EU leaders call on Hungary’s Orban to stop obstructing €90bn loan deal

Top Russian leaders have been informed that no part of its country is now safe from Ukraine’s long-range drone strikes that threaten far-off regions in Russia.

Sergei Shoigu, former defence minister and secretary of Russia’s security council told a council meeting on Tuesday that long-range attacks now threaten the Ural region, situated more than 1,500km (930 miles) from the country’s border.

Shoigu said Ukraine’s development of drones has advanced to a level that “no Russian region can feel safe” and the Ural region is already “in the immediate danger zone”.

He added that Ukraine’s aerial strikes on Russian infrastructure surged nearly fourfold in 2025, with more than 23,000 attacks recorded.

“The pace of weapons systems development, primarily that of unmanned drone systems, and the sophistication of the methods used to deploy them are such that no region of Russia can feel safe,” Shoigu told officials in the city of Yekaterinburg.

Peace talks between the United States, Russia and Ukraine ⁠are on pause amid the Iran war, Izvestia reported this morning, ​citing ⁠Russian officials.

Izvestia said the Kremlin ⁠had confirmed the ​pause ⁠and believes that the ‌Iran war could push Kyiv towards ‌reaching a compromise.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry ‌Peskov said Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev would continue working on investment and economic cooperation but that “the trilateral group is on pause”.

The ⁠trilateral peace talks on Ukraine with ⁠the ​United States ⁠are on a “situational ⁠pause”, the Kremlin said this morning.

Russia’s Izvestia ​newspaper ⁠said the ‌Iran war had temporarily halted ‌negotiations between ‌Moscow, Washington and Kyiv.

Kremlin spokesperson ⁠Dmitry Peskov said Russia hopes the pause will end and another round of negotiations can be held.

European ​Union leaders are expected to put heavy pressure on Hungarian leader Viktor Orban ‌today to lift his blockade on a vital €90bn (£77bn) EU loan to Ukraine to keep up its fight against Russia’s invasion.

EU leaders agreed to the loan in December but Orban, who has maintained cordial ties to Russia and repeatedly clashed ​with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, blocked its implementation last month, citing a dispute over a ​war-damaged pipeline.

At a summit in Brussels on Thursday, ​other leaders of the 27-nation bloc are expected to point to an agreement by Zelensky this week to fix the pipeline with EU technical help and funding, and press Orban to drop his opposition to the loan, diplomats say.

Many EU officials are particularly exasperated by Orban’s blockade as ⁠he secured ​an opt-out from paying for the costs of the loan, ​along with the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

Orban, however, has so far shown no sign of backing down. “No oil deliveries? No money. ​It’s that simple,” he posted on X on Tuesday.

European Union leaders are holding a summit in Brussels today for talks on the Iran war, energy prices, migration and an enormous loan for war-ravaged Ukraine being held up by Hungary.

Many of those leaders have deflected entreaties by US president Donald Trump to send military assets to secure the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for the global flow of oil, gas and fertilizer.

Rising energy prices because of the war and fears in Europe of a new refugee crisis have pushed leaders to make the Middle East one of the top priorities at the summit.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, has floated the idea of a “toolbox” of measures to lower energy prices for leaders to discuss because no single policy will work across the myriad markets in the 27-nation bloc to blunt economic shocks from the war, according to a senior European diplomat who wasn’t authorised to be publicly named so spoke on condition of anonymity.

The summit will also focus on a long-brewing standoff between Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán and most other EU nations.

South Korea’s government ‌is discussing with companies the possibility of importing Russian crude oil and naphtha, Seoul’s industry ministry said, as authorities struggle to ​safeguard energy supplies amid the escalating conflict in ​the Middle East.

The issue is related to the ⁠easing of economic sanctions on Russia, the ministry ​said in a text message to Reuters.

South Korea stopped imports of ​Russian crude oil in December 2022 following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, according to data from the Korea National Oil Corporation.

Russian crude oil ​accounted for 5.6 per cent of South Korea’s shipments in ​2021, a report from the state-run think tank Korea Institute for ‌International ⁠Economic Policy said.

The country’s energy exposure to the Middle East has increased because of the conflict in Ukraine, the report said. South Korea imports around 70 per cent of ​crude oil ​and half ⁠of naphtha through the Strait of Hormuz, according to South Korean lawmakers and the ​industry ministry.

It is also a big importer ​of ⁠naphtha, which is broken down into petrochemicals used in plastics for automobiles, electronics, clothing and construction.

Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban has said he will continue to block EU financing for Ukraine as long as oil shipments to Hungary remain interrupted.

Top European Union officials on Tuesday offered to pay Ukraine to repair a damaged pipeline meant to carry crude oil to Hungary, in a bid to persuade the government in Budapest to lift its veto on a massive aid package to the war-wracked country.

“If there’s no oil, there’s no money,” Orbán said in a video posted to social media on Monday. “If President Zelensky wants to get his money from Brussels, he needs to open the Druzhba oil pipeline,” he said.

EU leaders have lashed out at Orbán for agreeing to the loan to Ukraine at a summit in December and then reneging on that deal.

They accuse him of undermining the fundamental EU principle of “sincere cooperation” between the 27 member countries.

Orbán added that he believed Ukraine was deliberately holding up oil flows in order to tip the scales in favour of his political opponent ahead of Hungarian elections next month, but provided no evidence for his claim.

Ukraine and Hungary have been locked in a bitter feud since Russian oil deliveries to Hungary and Slovakia were halted in January due to damage to the Druzhba pipeline, which crosses Ukrainian territory. Ukrainian officials have blamed the damage on Russian drone attacks.

Ukraine has struck two aircraft repair facilities in Russia’s Novgorod, located about 800km from the Ukrainian border, its military said.

The attack hit plants producing and repairing military transport and cargo planes in the Ulyanovsk and Novgorod regions.

The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said the attack on the Aviastar plant, part of Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation, in the city of Ulyanovsk, was carried out on 16 March.

This facility produces Ilyushin-76MD-90A military transport planes, Ilyushin-78M-90A refueling planes, and provides maintenance for “Ruslan” cargo planes.

The strikes damaged hangars, parking areas and some planes stationed at the facility, Ukraine said.

Explosions were heard this morning in Crimea’s Sevastopol after Ukrainian forces reportedly launched a drone attack on the occupied territory.

The blast struck the city centre, with residents reporting that a building housing the Russian military’s 3rd Radio-Technical Air Defence Regiment was targeted, reported the Kyiv Independent citing Telegram media channels.

Russian-installed interim governor Mikhail Razvozhaev claimed 27 drones were downed on approach to the city.

At least one person has been reported killed and two injured in the attack.

On Sunday night, the 65-year-old One Battle After Another star became the fourth male actor to win his third Oscar. However, he was notably absent from the ceremony, instead choosing to visit the war-torn Ukraine.

In a new clip shared to X by Ukrainian Railways CEO Oleksandr Pertsovskyi, he presented Penn with a custom Oscar statuette made of salvaged metal from a railcar destroyed by Russia.

“You’re missing the Oscars, and plus you gave the last one to the president,” Pertsovskyi said. During one of Penn’s early visits to Ukraine following the 2022 Russian invasion, he gifted Zelensky one of his Oscar trophies.