The European Union on Thursday gave the final payment of a multibillion-dollar support package to Ukraine to help keep its war-ravaged economy afloat, leaving the country without a financial lifeline from Europe starting next month.
The EU has sent 1.5 billion euros ($1.6 billion) every month in 2023 to ensure macroeconomic stability and rebuild critical Ukrainian infrastructure destroyed in the war. It is also helping to pay salaries and pensions, keep hospitals and schools running, and provide shelter to people forced to leave their homes.
To ensure Ukraine has long-term, predictable revenues, the EU's executive branch, the European Commission, proposed providing the country with 50 billion euros ($55 billion). At a summit last week, 26 of the 27-nation bloc's leaders backed the plan; Hungary vetoed it.
The decision was a blow to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, days after he failed to persuade US lawmakers to approve an additional $61 billion for his war effort.
Hungary's leader, Prime Minister Viktor Orban, is an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Critics accuse him of putting Moscow's interests ahead of those of its allies in the EU and NATO.
Orban has called for an immediate end to the fighting and has pushed for peace talks between Moscow and kyiv.
Last week it accused its EU partners of trying to prolong the war and said sending more money to Ukraine was a "violation of (Hungary's) interests."
Orban will meet other EU leaders again on February 1 to try to break the deadlock.
Announcing that macro-financial support for Ukraine for 2023 had come to an end, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen did not offer any clues about what help kyiv might receive in January. Commission officials have not been able to answer questions about what financial support might be available.
The EU has provided Ukraine with almost €85 billion ($93 billion), including financial, humanitarian, emergency budget and military support, since Russian forces launched a full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022.
