On the eve of an extraordinary meeting of the European Council, at which the leaders of the European Union will again consider the issue of providing Ukraine with EUR 50 billion, there are no changes in the position of Hungary, which blocked this decision at the previous meeting in December.

A senior European diplomat told reporters about this on Tuesday in Brussels on condition of anonymity. As you know, precisely because Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán blocked the provision of further financial assistance for the period 2024-2027, the Belgian presidency of the Council convened an extraordinary meeting on February 1.

The diplomat said the EU is in the same place where it was on December 14 (the date of the last meeting of the European Council). There is no progress, he said, adding that they can only guess how events will develop, but Hungary is not on board yet. Otherwise, the documents (draft conclusions of the meeting) would already be on the table, the diplomat said.

At the same time, as of today, alternative ways to continue financing Ukraine are not being discussed. He said that nothing was discussed regarding Plan B and there is a problem of urgent financing for Ukraine.

According to the journalists' interlocutor, the EU will not agree to satisfy all of Hungary's conditions. The diplomat said a decision by all 27 leaders should not be made at any cost. They have to be prepared for any scenario, but they prefer the decision that is made by all 27 leaders – unanimously, he said. According to the diplomat, there is room for negotiations; if in Budapest there is a desire to annually discuss how money is spent in Ukraine, this is real (Hungary demands an annual review of Ukraine's funding.