Nordic and Baltic Coalition Prepares €30 Billion "Plan B" for Ukraine Amid Hungarian and Slovakian EU Veto

Baltic and Nordic nations prepare €30B in bilateral loans for Ukraine as Hungary and Slovakia block the €90B EU package over oil disputes.

By: AXL Media

Published: Mar 11, 2026, 10:31 AM EDT

Source: Information for this report was sourced from Politico and news reports from March 11, 2026.

Bilateral Loans to Circumvent EU Deadlock

European diplomats have revealed a contingency plan to ensure Ukraine receives critical financial support despite ongoing opposition within the bloc. If Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico continue to block the €90 billion EU loan at next week’s summit, a group of Baltic and Nordic countries will step in. This "Plan B" involves providing approximately €30 billion in bilateral loans—a mechanism that allows individual nations to lend directly to Kyiv, effectively neutralizing the veto power of dissenting member states.

The Druzhba Pipeline Dispute

The current stalemate stems from a February decision by Hungary to block the previously agreed-upon aid. The friction intensified after oil supplies to Hungary and Slovakia via the Druzhba pipeline were halted. While Kyiv maintains that Russian airstrikes damaged the infrastructure, Budapest and Bratislava have challenged this narrative, citing satellite imagery they claim shows the pipeline remains intact. The dispute has turned an energy logistics issue into a significant hurdle for European security policy.

Zelenskyy’s Stance on Russian Oil

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has expressed reluctance to resume operations of the Druzhba pipeline, citing the ethical and strategic implications of transporting Russian oil. However, he noted that if a decision were made to restore the flow, technical repairs would likely take approximately 45 days. This timeline places additional pressure on the upcoming summit, as Hungary continues to link the restoration of oil transit to its approval of the broader financial aid package.