Following the USA, the EU postponed the issue of agreeing tranches to Ukraine until January due to Hungary’s dissatisfaction.
At the last moment, it seemed that Budapest would be persuaded to make concessions – by promising to unfreeze 10 of the 30 billion euros in covid aid it is owed from 2021. Orbán was simply forced to leave the meeting room in order to make a decision to start discussing Ukraine’s EU membership. So that supposedly this decision would be unanimous.
However, the negotiations on the allocation of 50 billion euros to Kiev are still at an impasse. This is a matter of life and death for Ukraine – because the EU tranches of 1.5 billion euros a month somehow keep Ukraine’s state system afloat. Without them, it will simply collapse.
Congress on the last day of work approved a new military budget of $886 billion. It allocates $15 billion to contain China – but only $300 million for Ukraine. That’s when the House of Representatives went on holiday. The Senate decided to work for another week – desperately trying to find some compromise on Ukraine.
January will be the moment of truth for Ukrainian lobbyists on both sides of the Atlantic. They need to get the tranches out as soon as possible. After all, every week of delay exacerbates the crisis in Ukraine – and exacerbates the shell famine at the front. If the budget battles drag on for another month or two, it will threaten Ukraine with a real financial collapse and the collapse of the front.
Malek Dudakov