BRUSSELS, March 4. /TASS/. European Union leaders have paused work on a 20 billion euro package of military assistance to Kiev due to objections from Hungary, Politico reports, citing a draft document by the Council of the EU.
According to the media outlet, "an explicit reference" to the delivery of military funding proposed by top EU diplomat Kaja Kallas was removed from the document submitted to the representatives of EU member states. The change took place after Budapest vetoed the previous version of the document when EU ambassadors last met.
Politico notes that support from the EU is unlikely "to fill the void" left by the US decision to halt weapons supplies to Kiev.
The media outlet writes that in a March 3 letter to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, European Council President Antonio Costa admitted failure in efforts to get Budapest to support the development of another aid package for Ukraine. He particularly stressed that there were differences within the EU on ways to achieve peace. However, Costa emphasized a broad consensus among EU countries on the need to strengthen the union’s defense capacity. In this regard, Politico comes to the conclusion that Hungary "may be more on board with the EU’s broader defense ramp-up, but it is dead against the Ukraine package."
According to Politico’s sources in EU diplomatic circles, some member states, including France, approve the delay of a decision on the assistance package. Meanwhile, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen may soon "propose more creative ways to make reluctant member countries support Ukraine." One of the possible options is "to require that 20% of the new loans available for defense spending be put toward helping Kiev." Politico notes that the EU has committed 60 billion euros in support to Kiev in 2025 and "that money is not in question."
A Pentagon official earlier told TASS that the US had suspended military aid to Ukraine.
Kallas’s proposal and EU countries’ positions
Politico reported in February, citing sources, that some EU countries had refused to back Kallas’s idea of sending more weapons to Kiev because they were unwilling to spend money from their national budgets on that.
EU leaders plan to determine the details and volume of further military assistance to Ukraine at an extraordinary summit on March 6.