Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba has announced that Hungary is using Ukraine as a hostage to get the European Union (EU) to pay out the frozen funds, Politico reports.
On December 12, the EU reached an agreement with Hungary, and Budapest lifted its veto on a financial aid package for war-torn Ukraine. In return, the EU reduced the amount of frozen funds. Hungary has not received full payments from the EU budget due to concerns about the high risk of corruption in the country.
Kuleba said that Hungary is playing its own game and Ukraine is like a hostage, however, the Ukrainian foreign minister emphasized that there is also a ray of light in this situation, which could otherwise be perceived as Orbán’s victory:
«The good news is that the Commission found the way how to make this financial aid to Ukraine possible without securing a vote by Hungary, so now we know for critical cases there is a solution.»
Ukraine is expecting the first part of the financial aid already in January, and Kuleba said – the sooner, the better. The minister assured that Ukraine really appreciates any help, but the problem is always time, which in wartime means that everything was needed yesterday.
The war in Ukraine has been going on for 11 months now, and Kuleba reviewed Kyiv’s achievements and talked about the goals for 2023. Seeking approval of the 10th sanctions package, which will target Moscow’s arms supply chains, will be one of Kyiv’s priorities in 2023. The minister said that restrictions and bans should affect Russia’s military industry, and added that Russia is still producing weapons, despite already existing sanctions.
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