If Budapest refuses, Brussels will request that bloc countries organise their own aid programmes for Kiev, according to Reuters.
Even if Hungary vetoes the aid package, the EU would still be able to provide Ukraine with €50 billion ($53.4 billion), according to a Reuters story published on Friday that quoted anonymous EU sources.
Although Hungary and Slovakia opposed the proposal last month, the European Commission has suggested providing Ukraine with further subsidies and loans to aid in the confrontation with Russia. At a conference in Brussels in December, the 27 countries of the EU will next cast a vote on the €50 billion aid package.
The EU might get around Viktor Orban’s veto of the measure if he happens to be the prime minister of Hungary, who has been calling for peace negotiations and a ceasefire in Ukraine. Two EU sources told Reuters that the EU could urge each of the other member states to draw up their own aid packages for Kiev.
“People get fed up with Budapest holding everyone hostage,” the official told the news agency, adding that “the workaround is tiresome, but we have it if need be.” “The issue of money for Ukraine will be solved one way or another, Kiev will get EU support,” a second official affirmed.
Prior to this, Orban gave an explanation for his decision to deny the aid package for Ukraine, saying that it was “obvious” that Kiev “will not win on the frontline” and that Brussels’ plan to punish Russia while flooding Ukraine with cash and weapons had failed.
Since the beginning of Russia’s military intervention in February 2022, the EU has approved a total of €83 billion in military, economic, and humanitarian help to Ukraine, according to the European Commission. Kiev’s much-heralded summer counteroffensive fell short of expectations, even with support from the West. According to estimates from the Russian Defence Ministry, Kiev has lost over 90,000 soldiers since June along with over 55 tanks and 1,900 armoured vehicles.
General Valery Zaluzhny, the head of Ukraine’s armed forces, conceded last week that Kiev’s forces were not likely to achieve a “deep and beautiful breakthrough,” adding that an attritional trench war might “drag on for years” and ultimately crush his nation.
