He said Volodymyr Zelensky, who criticized the Hungarian prime minister for being lenient with Russia, had “a bad habit of telling everyone what to do”. “It is unusual for someone in trouble to ask for help and tell you to help him, and if you do not help him, he will tell you,” Orban said after the Ukrainian ambassador was summoned to Budapest for clothing. Mr Orban acknowledged that his stance had alienated long-time ally Poland, which backs sanctions on oil and gas. Some leaders have not congratulated him on his victory and he is facing legal action from Brussels that could freeze EU funding due to concerns about the rule of law. Speaking to the Irish parliament and Senate, Mr Zelensky said he could no longer “tolerate any indecision” about EU sanctions “after everything we went through in Ukraine, after everything the Russian troops did”. On Wednesday, the United States hit Russian banks and barred Americans from investing in Russia in response to what US President Joe Biden condemned as Russian “atrocities.” They hit Sberbank, which owns a third of all of Russia’s banking assets, and Alfabank, the country’s fourth-largest financial institution. However, energy transactions have been excluded from the latter measures.
