Hungary wants the European Union to persuade Ukraine to resume gas transit from Russia to Europe, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday, signalling a tough debate as the EU seeks to extend its sanctions against Russia over the coming week.

The European Union will moved forward with a renewal on Russian sanctions after a deal was struck with Hungary, according to multiple reports.

The European Union has agreed to prolong for 6 months a raft of sanctions aimed at depriving Russia of funds to finance its war against Ukraine.

Following a potentially meaningless declaration from the European Commission on Monday that the E.U. will continue talking to Kyiv about “the supply to Europe through the gas pipeline system in Ukraine,

Sikorski believes that Budapest changed its mind after Trump called Russian dictator Vladimir Putin as an aggressor and threatened Moscow with sanctions if it did not engage in peace talks. It was the new US president's first clear position on Russia's war against Ukraine.

The European Union on Monday renewed its wide-ranging sanctions on Russia over the war in Ukraine after Hungary stopped holding up the move in return for a declaration on energy security. The bloc’s foreign policy chief,