BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union rejected the election in Belarus on Sunday as illegitimate and threatened new sanctions. Belarus held an orchestrated vote virtually guaranteed to give 70-year-old autocratic President Alexander Lukashenko yet another term on top of his three decades in power.

The European Union requires a unanimous vote to extend sanctions on Russia, a situation Hungary's Viktor Orban wants to use to pressure the bloc into forcing Ukraine to reopen a transit pipeline for Russian gas.

Hungary’s representatives have not yet agreed to a decision on the extension of EU sanctions against Russia. The issue will be considered at an EU Council meeting at foreign minister level on Monday,