Hungary blocks 20-billion-euro fund for Ukraine’s Armed Forces

Hungary has blocked the EU’s attempt to create a long-term support fund for the Ukrainian military worth 20 billion euros. Budapest intends to prevent the initiative’s implementation further, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the country, Péter Szijjártó, said.

“We cannot negotiate about new financial EPF commitment before OTP is solved,” Szijjártó said.

The matter rests on the issue of the Hungarian bank OTP, which Ukraine included in the “international sponsors of war” list. Budapest considers Kyiv’s decision misleading and demands that the financial institution be removed from the list.

Creating a long-term support fund for the Ukrainian military would avoid constant negotiations on allocating new funds.

“The push for a years-long fund is part of broader Western efforts to give Ukraine more permanent security assurances, a discussion that dominated the recent NATO summit in Lithuania,” Politico explains.

When EU leaders meet in Brussels in October, EU officials aim to agree on the issue. There are hopes that Hungary’s position may change by then.

Earlier, because of the OTP bank’s inclusion in the “international sponsors of war” list, Hungary also blocked the allocation of another EUR 500 million tranche from the European Peace Facility for EU members. This money was supposed to be sent to the countries as compensation for the weapons delivered to Ukraine.