The foreign ministers of the European Union failed to agree on the allocation of the eighth tranche of military aid to Ukraine in the amount of 500 million euros because of Hungary's position.
High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell said at a press conference on Monday after the EU Foreign Affairs Council meeting in Luxembourg.
According to him, the ministers discussed the issue of assisting Ukraine in its "urgent defense needs".
"We have not yet been able to solve the problem of the eighth tranche from the European Peace Fund, we are still looking for a solution, but one way or another we will find a solution," Borrell said.
He did not specify which country opposed the allocation of this tranche and for what reasons. At the same time, diplomatic sources say that Hungary is preventing the disbursement of the last tranche.
"As expected, no agreement was reached at today's meeting of EU foreign ministers on the eighth tranche (500 million) of EU military aid to Ukraine. The Hungarian bank OTR has been removed from the blacklist for doing business, but Budapest needs legal guarantees that this decision is made on a permanent basis," Radio Liberty correspondent Rikard Jozwiak reports.
Josep Borrell also noted that the EU is awaiting instructions from this week's European Council meeting to continue moving forward with the creation of the Ukraine Fund, but that "political will is needed."
Background. As a reminder, NATO ambassadors recently met to discuss the meeting between Putin and Orban. They believe that this poses a serious threat to the security of the Alliance.