Hungary blocks $54bn EU financial aid for Ukraine

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has blocked 50 billion euros ($54bn) in European Union aid for Ukraine, hours after the group agreed to formally open membership talks with Kyiv.

Leaders meeting in Brussels said they would revisit the issue next month after Orban refused to back the additional funding for Ukraine’s government as it battles to remove Russian forces from its territory.

“Summary of the nightshift: veto for the extra money to Ukraine,” Orban, the closest ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin in the EU, wrote on social media.