Hungary Blocks $54bn EU Monetary Support For Ukraine

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has blocked 50 billion euros ($54bn) in European Union aid for Ukraine, hours after the group agreed to formally open membership talks with Kyiv.

Leaders meeting in Brussels said they would revisit the issue next month after Orban refused to back the additional funding for Ukraine’s government as it battles to remove Russian forces from its territory.

“Summary of the nightshift: veto for the extra money to Ukraine,” Orban, the closest ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin in the EU, wrote on social media.

The EU’s other leaders agreed to revisit the debate in January.

“We still have some time, Ukraine is not out of money in the next few weeks,” Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte told reporters as he left the talks.

“We agreed with the 26 countries. Victor Orban, Hungary, were not yet able to do that. I am fairly confident we can get a deal early next year. We are thinking of late January.”

Rutte said another summit would be convened to reach a deal. Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo stressed that the financial support was vital.

“It is just as important that Ukraine has the means to continue the war and rebuild its country,” he said.

Orban had promised to block the membership talks and the funding for weeks, and the decision was a blow to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who failed this week to persuade Republican lawmakers in the United States to approve an additional $61bn for Ukraine.

Most EU leaders wanted this week’s summit to send a clear sign of solidarity with Ukraine amid perceptions, eagerly seized upon and repeated by Moscow, that allies’ support for Kyiv was waning.

ALJAZEERA