PARIS, February 23. /TASS/. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s decision to block the EU 90-billion-euro loan to Ukraine will save thousands of lives, a French politican said.

"[Orban’s] veto will save us 17 billion euro of French money. This will also make it possible to save thousands of lives by preventing the EU from artificially fueling the conflict in Ukraine. <…> However, the totalitarian EU will do everything in its power to circumvent this," the leader of the French party The Patriots, Florian Philippot, wrote on his X page.

Politico reported earlier that Orban officially notified European Council President Antonio Costa about his decision to block a 90-billion-euro loan to Ukraine in response to its "unprovoked hostility."

Earlier on Monday, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said that the top EU diplomats had failed to agree on the loan.