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Nuclear build-up and Budapest's pipeline ultimatum
Summary
A look back at 2 March 2026, when France announced a larger nuclear arsenal and Hungary's pressure on Kyiv was already under way.
What did Europe's security picture look like on 2 March 2026? French president Emmanuel Macron announced that France would increase its stockpile of nuclear weapons for the first time in decades. He cited Russia's war on Ukraine, China's growing military power in Asia and changing U.S. defence priorities as reasons for the build-up.
The announcement placed the war in Ukraine among the main justifications for a shift in French nuclear policy, alongside threats far from Europe and uncertainty about American priorities.
Pressure from Budapest
A few days earlier, on 24 February 2026, Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán had said Hungary was ending all support for Ukraine, including through the European Union framework. He tied that position to one condition: Ukraine resuming oil transfers via the Druzhba pipeline. Kyiv thus faced a dispute with a neighbour and EU member over energy, even as a major EU power spoke of deterrence.
A domestic ruling
On 25 February 2026, Ukraine's Supreme Court confirmed the case of Kis and Levchuk. It was the first time in Ukrainian judicial practice that the establishment of a same-sex couple living together as one family, in a de facto marital relationship, was upheld.
Taken together, these developments showed three tracks: allied rearmament, a bilateral rift over energy, and a legal change at home.
