Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Tuesday, ahead of key talks on the Ukraine conflict, that the EU would find a way to provide aid to Ukraine "with or without" Hungary's approval.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who maintained close ties to the Kremlin following Russia's invasion of Ukraine, in December vetoed 50 billion euros ($54 billion) in EU aid for Ukraine.
The bloc will hold a special summit on Thursday to seek a solution to the standoff as the war nears its second anniversary.
"One way or another, we will find some solution, with or without Orban, to support Ukraine," Tusk told journalists.
Populist leaders in Europe, including in Slovakia and Hungary, have condemned the conflict and Kyiv's urgent requests for tens of billions of euros in support. Only Budapest vetoed the latest aid package however.
Tusk, a former European Council president chairing its summits, branded Orban as "the only openly anti-Ukrainian" leader within the bloc.
Fico questioned Ukraine's sovereignty and called for Kyiv to cede territory to Moscow to end the war -- something Ukraine has repeatedly ruled out.
"It's in Slovakia's interest not to be on political and moral sidelines, where Viktor Orban has ended up with his pro-Putin rhetoric," Tusk added.
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Comments (2)
Its about time, Ukraine is about to run out of ammo and money. Probably the EU should add an additional 60 billion euros as a bonus for all the pain and suffering Ukraine is going through.
@roshan, Yes...great Idea. Withdraw it immediately from the frozen Russian foreign reserve accounts already in western banks.
Make it so EU.
Orban's strongest political ties, comments and stonewalling actions are blatantly in support of a declared enemy (russia) of a number of your member states.
You cannot allow Orban (or outings friend Fico) to have veto rights related to how you must support Ukraine decisively now to prevent russia's war machine from spreading elsewhere into EU.
NATO must do similar with its two putin allied members.
How the USA will deal with putins' MRGA / MAGA meddlers is yet to be seen....especially given that cults' leader stacked the SCOTUS before finally he was evicted form the white house (despite an attempted insurrection).