Hungary's prime minister Viktor Orban called using Russian frozen assets to finance Ukraine a 'crazy idea' on Wednesday (December 17), as he arrived at the EU far-right leaders' meeting in Brussels.

EU leaders will discuss how to finance Ukraine with frozen Russian assets at an EU summit on Thursday (December 18), when they are expected to take some key decisions including on guarantees for Belgium, where most of the assets are held.

There are some 210 billion euros of such assets in the EU, of which 185 billion are in Belgium, 18 billion in France, and smaller amounts in Luxembourg, Germany and Sweden.

The original plan to use the Russian cash for Ukraine in 2026 and 2027 involved only the Belgian central securities depository Euroclear, where they are held.

Orban also said that using these assets would have "tremendously bad impacts" on the Belgian Euroclear company.

French far-right leader Marine Le Pen said on Wednesday that the EU tried to "twist the arm" of a number of countries regarding the use of Russian frozen assets.

DESCRIPCIÓN DE IMÁGENES

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM (DECEMBER 17, 2025) (AGENCY POOL - Access all)

1. MOTORCADE APPROACHING

2. (SOUNDBITE) (English) HUNGARIAN PRIME MINISTER, VIKTOR ORBAN, SAYING:

"Euroclear is a Belgian company. They are in danger. If the European Union's crazy idea goes ahead to confiscate the Russian frozen assets, that would have tremendously bad impacts on the Euroclear company."

3. BELGIAN PRIME MINISTER BART DE WEVER STANDING ON OFFICE BALCONY

4. (SOUNDBITE) (English) HUNGARIAN PRIME MINISTER, VIKTOR ORBAN, SAYING:

"Brussels is a worrying player in European politics by itself. So, what's going on here is circumventing the rights of the Member states daily, they would like to put forward programs which destroy the European economy: crazy madness, green theories, pro-migration policy, pro-war policy. So Brussels is a symbol of a political danger for a country like ours from Central Europe."

5. MOTORCADE APPROACHING

6. (SOUNDBITE) (French) FRENCH FAR-RIGHT LEADER, MARINE LE PEN, SAYING:

"First of all, today we are at the leaders’ summit to obviously discuss the common issues we have with the behaviour of the European Union. The European Union has become a permanent coup d’état. The behaviour of (European Commission President) Mrs. Von der Leyen on the Mercosur file is absolutely unacceptable since we are witnessing real manoeuvres to circumvent the rule of unanimity. In reality, we find this kind of disloyal and dishonest practices repeatedly."

7. LE PEN TALKING TO JOURNALISTS

8. (SOUNDBITE) (French) FRENCH FAR-RIGHT LEADER, MARINE LE PEN, SAYING:

"This is also true regarding Russian assets, since she tried to twist the arm of a number of countries—Belgium first, by the way—to clearly obtain, once again, a violation of the treaties. Today, she is talking about a loan, an absolutely considerable loan, which would be imposed on the different countries of the European Union, along with the financial burden and risk that this loan represents."

9. CZECH PRIME MINISTER ANDREJ BABIS APPROACHING

10. (SOUNDBITE) (English) CZECH PRIME MINISTER, ANDREJ BABIS, SAYING:

"So, of course, we refuse to guarantee if there is a proposal for these frozen assets, we have the same position as Belgium. Belgium is the most important country in this debate. I was here last week and I spoke with the Prime Minister of Belgium. He explained the problem to me. So we will see what the position will be because also the other countries like Italy and others are changing their position. So there will be a negotiation until the last moment of the (European) Council and we will see what the final proposal is."

11. BABIS TALKING TO JOURNALISTS