Long reputed to be Russia-friendly, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has often railed against the continuation of the EU sanctions, claiming that they impose an intolerable burden on the Hungarian economy and provide no solution for the carnage in Ukraine.

The Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orban, has once again threatened to veto the European Union's sanctions against Russia. This will happen if Ukraine does not restore the transit of Russian gas, Bloomberg reports.

EU officials are debating whether to restart Russian pipeline gas imports as a potential incentive for Moscow to negotiate peace with Ukraine, the Financial Times reported Thursday, citing anonymous sources familiar with the discussions.

The European Union's sanctions on vessels transporting Russian grain, along with Turkey's wheat import ban, impacted Russian grain exports at the end of 2024, the country's central bank said on Thursday.

The EU has slapped 15 rounds of sanctions on Russia since it's all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and member states are negotiating a 16th. But Moscow has used a variety of tricks to evade sanctions and divert goods and money to Russia, including convoluted financial schemes.

At the same time, the slow rollout frustrates European fertilizer producers, who say Moscow is being given more time to keep on flooding the market. Last year, the EU imported 6.17 million metric tons of Russian fertilizer worth €2.12 billion — the highest volume since Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, according to Eurostat and customs data.

The bloc is also proposing restrictions on more software, hardware and other technologies used in weapons systems.

The European Commission included restrictions on sales of video games and joysticks to Russia in its 16th package of sanctions on Moscow, the proposal document showed.

The European Union proposed imposing tariffs on the remaining agricultural products coming from Russia and Belarus that aren’t already facing duties, as well as some nitrogen-based fertilizers.

Poland is targeting companies importing Russian fertilisers, in a bid to prevent the European Union from developing another dependency on Moscow for a key resource.

The European Union is considering a ban on Russian aluminum imports, along with other sanctions, but faces growing opposition from some member states.

The European Commission has proposed further tariffs on a range of agricultural products and fertiliser from Russia and Belarus in an effort to further