Officials said a deal had been struck that paved the way for Hungary to agree to the extension at a meeting of foreign ministers in Brussels.

“The sanctions will be renewed,” France’s top diplomat Jean-Noel Barrot said at the start of the meeting.

The EU’s 27 members need to reach a unanimous decision by Jan 31 to roll over the 15 rounds of unprecedented sanctions imposed on Moscow over the invasion of Ukraine.

Hungary – one of Russia’s main friends in the EU – had left its counterparts in the bloc fuming over a refusal so far to approve the move.

Budapest at first said it wanted to wait for the inauguration of US President Donald Trump to see Washington’s stance before agreeing.

Trump last week threatened Russia with more sanctions if it failed to settle the war in Ukraine soon.

Orban on Friday then threatened to veto the extension unless the EU pressured Ukraine to reopen a gas pipeline running to Central Europe.

Ukraine allowed a gas transit agreement with Russia to lapse on New Year’s Day as it tries to starve Moscow of revenues used to fund the war that the Kremlin launched in Feb 2022.

Diplomats said the EU had agreed to read out a statement on Hungary’s energy security at Monday’s meeting of foreign ministers in return for Budapest backing the sanction extension.

Orban has repeatedly delayed previous decisions on EU sanctions before eventually approving them.

The sanctions must be rolled over every six months.