The European Union has been warned that it will lose its sanction war on Russia.

A top aid of the Hungarian President Balazs Orban says this is because of the economic problems which come with these sanctions. He notes that while Moscow will suffer its fair share of damage it will eventually survive.

Orban says another approach is needed and believes the solution may lie in negotiations, a ceasefire, or diplomacy.

At least six packages of sanctions have been slapped on the Russian Federation since February when its army went into neighbouring Ukraine. However, Europe has been slow to impose a total freeze on Russian oil and gas imports as several countries like Hungary are heavily dependent on this fuel.

Moscow has already been circumventing the Western sanctions. At a gathering of emerging economies, the BRICS bloc the Russian President Vladimir Putin revealed that they are rerouting trade and oil exports towards these countries. Latest data shows that Russia has displaced Saudi Arabia as China’s top supplier of crude oil.