EU member states set conditions for Brussels to continue aid to Ukraine

According to RT news agency, a senior official in the Hungarian government recently said that Budapest will prevent the EU from continuing to provide aid to Ukraine if Kiev cannot explain the amount of money it has received from Brussels since the conflict with Russia broke out.

“There are many technical ways to provide funding to Ukraine as well as humanitarian assistance,” Gergely Gulyas, head of the Hungarian Prime Minister’s Office, said at a press conference on September 28. He also said Hungary was not opposed to individual EU countries providing support to Kiev.

However, he said any changes to the EU's common budget would need to be agreed, adding that the content was currently "under consideration for revision".

Gulyas stressed that Budapest would ensure that Ukraine “will not receive a single penny of new aid” if it cannot account for the amount of money the EU has already provided.

In June, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen requested a 66 billion euro ($69.9 billion) increase in the EU's long-term budget, including 17 billion euros (about $18 billion) to provide grants to Ukraine.

According to EU figures, the bloc and individual members have provided Kiev with more than $88 billion in financial, military, humanitarian and refugee assistance since February 2022.

Gulyas said it was “absurd and shameful” that Brussels continued to withhold EU funding for Hungary while seeking to get more money for Ukraine.

“Let's hope that it's not because this money has been spent elsewhere, let's hope that it's not because it's been given to a country outside the EU,” he added.

According to RT, the EU has suspended about 7.5 billion euros ($7.9 billion) of financial resources allocated to Hungary in 2022 over what they call rule of law concerns.

The Hungarian government has maintained a neutral stance on the conflict between Moscow and Kiev. While providing humanitarian aid, Budapest has refused to send arms to President Vladimir Zelensky’s government. Hungary has also repeatedly called for a peaceful resolution to the crisis and criticized Brussels’ sanctions against Moscow, saying they are hurting the EU more than Russia.