France, March 19 -- Moscow's closest partner in the bloc, the nationalist prime minister has long resisted helping Kyiv to repel Russia's invasion, stalling EU aid and repeated rounds of sanctions.

This time around, Orban is holding up a 90-billion-euro ($104 billion) loan as leverage in a feud over damage to a pipeline running through Ukraine - which has choked the flow of Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia.

"The Hungarian position is very simple. We are ready to support Ukraine when we get our oil, which is blocked by them," Orban said on arrival at the summit, which Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky addressed by videolink.

Orban had made it clear he planned to play hardball, as he leans into anti-EU and anti-Ukrainian narratives ah...