Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban dramatically dropped his objections to €50 billion in EU funding for Ukraine in a breakthrough announced as EU leaders were gathering for an emergency summit on the issue.
European Council President Charles Michel, who chairs summit meetings, announced on social media that the deal had been done.
Before the main gathering, Mr Orban held a meeting with the leaders of France, Germany and Italy, as well as Mr Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Following the meeting, Mr Michel said on X: “All 27 leaders agreed on an additional €50 billion support package for Ukraine within the EU budget. This locks in steadfast, long-term, predictable funding for #Ukraine.”
The €50 billion is made up of grants and loans to Ukraine, and will be resourced from an expanded EU budget, known as the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF).
Hungary had sought the right to veto the funding over its four-year disbursement period.
According to a copy of the text, EU leaders will debate the funding on an annual basis, without any country having a veto over it.
EU funds for Hungary will remain frozen, regardless of the deal on aid for Ukraine, an EU diplomat said.
The diplomat said Hungary would still need to fulfil its own obligations in order to be eligible to receive EU funds.
Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal welcomed the EU’s decision.
“EU Member States once more show their solidarity and unity in the actions to Ukrainian people to withstand the war,” he said on X.
Earlier, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said: “We can’t go away without an agreement, so one way or another we have to leave here today with an agreement on Ukraine.
“The war has now been raging for two years and Ukraine will not be able to continue to defend itself without the support of the European Union,” he said.
Putin’s anti-war opponent takes step toward election
Less than six weeks until Russia’s presidential election in mid-March, and the country’s political establishment is gearing up for the vote.
Anti-war candidate Boris Nadezhdin said on Wednesday that he had submitted 105,000 signatures to Russia’s Central Election Commission as he prepared to challenge incumbent Vladimir Putin in the upcoming vote.
Whether the CEC will accept all those signatures will be closely watched. There are concerns that the commission could try to disqualify Nadezhdin, a long-standing figure in Russian politics but a vocal critic of the war, from running.
A top official in Russia’s Security Council claimed the West could try to “shake up” Russia’s internal politics in the run-up to the presidential elections.
As the war enters its 708th day, these are the main developments:
A Russian bomb hit a hospital in northeastern Ukraine, forcing the evacuation of dozens of patients, smashing windows and damaging equipment. Volodymyr Tymoshko, head of the Kharkiv regional branch of the national police, said the bomb made a direct hit on the hospital in the town of Velykyi Burluk, northeast of Kharkiv, and a second bomb landed nearby. Four people were slightly injured.
Ukraine’s air defenses shot down 14 out of 20 drones launched by Russia in an overnight attack that injured one person and damaged commercial buildings. The air force said the Iranian-made Shahed drones and three Iskander missiles targeted five Ukrainian regions in the south and the east.
Russia said it destroyed 20 missiles launched by Ukraine over the Black Sea and the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow invaded in 2014 and then annexed.
Ukraine’s air force commander Mykola Oleshchuk said its forces had struck the Belbek military airfield in Crimea. He did not go into detail.
Politics and diplomacy
Russia and Ukraine exchanged hundreds of prisoners of war. Russia’s Defense Ministry said 195 of its soldiers were freed, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said 207 people, including some civilians, had been returned to Ukraine.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told his country’s parliament that he would rally European partners to deliver support for Ukraine that was “so huge” it would weigh on Russian President Vladimir Putin. His comments came ahead of a key European Union summit on 50 billion euros ($54bn) of funding for Ukraine that was being blocked by Hungary.
Victoria Nuland, the United States acting deputy secretary of state, visited Kyiv and said she was encouraged by Ukraine’s strengthening defenses and that Moscow should expect some “surprises” on the battlefield. A US military aid package for Ukraine is being held up in Congress by Republicans who want to link it to policy changes at the US border. Nuland said she was confident it would be adopted.
The International Court of Justice (ICJ) rejected much of a case filed by Ukraine that accused Russia of bankrolling separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine a decade ago, saying only that Moscow had failed to investigate alleged breaches.
Weapons
The EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell admitted that the EU’s promise to supply Ukraine with one million artillery shells by March would fall short, with just over half that number expected to be delivered by that deadline. The remaining 155-mm artillery shells are likely to be delivered by the end of the year, Borrell said.
Compiled by Ana Dumbadze
