For four years, one country kept the European Union from sanctioning one of the most prominent cheerleaders of Russia’s war in Ukraine. That country was Hungary, and the cheerleader was Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church.
Now, with Hungary’s new government signaling a willingness to play ball, the EU is moving forward with plans to add Kirill, whose legal name is Vladimir Gundyayev, to its sanctions list. The move is part of a broader “mini-package” of targeted measures that has been under discussion since May 2026.
The long road to sanctions
The idea of sanctioning Patriarch Kirill is not new. The EU first proposed the measure back in May 2022, just months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Kirill had made himself a fairly easy target, offering vocal, public endorsement of the Kremlin’s military campaign and framing the conflict in spiritual and civilizational terms that gave Moscow’s aggression a veneer of religious legitimacy.
The UK, Canada, and Ukraine all sanctioned him that same year. The EU, however, kept running into a wall named Viktor Orban.
