Future support for Ukraine up in air

The European Union has paid the final tranche of a multibillion- euro support package to Ukraine to help keep its war- ravaged economy afloat this year, leaving the country without a financial lifeline from Europe as of next month.

The EU has sent € 1.5 billion ($ 2.62b) each month in 2023 to ensure macro- economic stability and rebuild critical infrastructure destroyed in the war. It’s also helping to pay wages and pensions, keep hospitals and schools running, and provide shelter for people forced from their homes.

To ensure that Ukraine has predictable, longer- term income, the EU’s executive branch, the European Commission, proposed to provide the country with € 50b. At a summit last week, 26 of the 27 nation bloc’s leaders endorsed the plan, but Hungary imposed a veto.

The decision came as a major blow to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, days after he had failed to persuade US lawmakers to approve an additional US$ 61b ($ 96.87b) for his war effort.

Hungary’s nationalist leader, Prime Minister Viktor Orban, is widely considered to be Russian President Vladimir Putin’s closest ally in the EU. Critics accuse him of putting Moscow’s interests ahead of those of his EU and Nato allies.

Orban has called for an immediate end to the fighting, which has ground on for almost two years, and pushed for peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv. Last week, he accused his EU partners of seeking to prolong the war and said that sending more money to Ukraine was a “violation of ( Hungary’s) interests”.