Hungary has opposed efforts to revamp the EU budget to channel EUR 50 billion to Kyiv and provide more cash for other tasks such as managing migration, Reuters said.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said at a press conference on Tuesday that the EU should help Ukraine in its fight against the Russian invasion, but without diverting resources from the bloc's budget.

"If we want to help Ukraine, which I think we need to do, we have to do it in a way that doesn't harm the EU's budget … But to give away 50 billion euros from the EU budget for four years in advance is a violation of the EU's sovereignty and national interests. We do not even know what will happen in a quarter of a year," he said.

Orban said any financial facility for Ukraine should be separate from the EU budget. He said Hungary's proposal for creating such a mechanism was based on allocating aid on the basis of gross national income (GNI).

As the Yevropeiska Pravda (European Truth) online publication reported on Tuesday, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, after meeting with Orban in Budapest, said that he supports his "legitimate" fight against changes to the EU budget to allocate EUR 50 billion in aid to Ukraine and that even if these funds are allocated in two or three years nothing will change the front lines, but more soldiers will die on both sides.

"Ukraine needs to be helped, but I would argue that it is being helped in a way that has no effect. We are now paying [Ukraine] EUR 1.5 billion a month from the European Union. We are imposing sanctions on the Russians ... How long should this go on?" Fico said.

As reported, an extraordinary European Council will be held in Brussels on February 1, the main issue of which will be the revision of the EU budget for 2024-2027, taking into account the inclusion of macro-financial assistance to Ukraine for EUR 50 billion. The European Commission proposed such a general budget for the fund: EUR 17 billion in grants and EUR 33 billion in loans.