Ukraine expressed confidence it would receive a €50bn aid package from the EU, despite Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, vetoing the funding at a crucial summit in Brussels. In a statement, the foreign ministry in Kyiv shrugged off Orbán’s blocking tactics. It said it expected “all necessary legal procedures” to be completed at an EU summit in January, with the aid delivered “as soon as possible”.
French President Emmanuel Macron said Orbán must not be allowed to take the EU “hostage” after blocking the aid package. As leaders of the European Union start working on the details of plan B to raise the money through cash and loans, the French president said Orbán was being dishonest to the public about his reasons for vetoing the financial package and would ultimately come around.
Russia congratulated Hungary for blocking the aid to Ukraine. “Hungary, in contrast to many European countries, firmly defends its interests, which impresses us,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said in Moscow.
The European Commission will release a further 1.5 billion euros for Ukraine in coming days under existing arrangements, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said at a news conference at the end of an EU summit. A new summit to discuss financial support for Ukraine is planned for early new year, European Council President Charles Michel added.
Orbán said Friday his country would have plenty of future opportunities to interrupt Ukraine’s process of joining the EU, a day after the right-wing leader’s stunning turnaround allowed EU leaders to move forward on bringing Kyiv into the bloc. In an interview Friday with Hungarian state radio, Orbán said that EU leaders told him he would “lose nothing” by dropping his veto since he’d have chances in the future to block Ukraine’s accession if he chose to. “Their decisive argument was that Hungary loses nothing, given that the final word on Ukraine’s membership has to be given by the national parliaments, 27 parliaments, including the Hungarian one,” Orbán said.
A council member of the western Ukrainian village of Keretsky detonated three hand grenades during a meeting Friday, critically injuring himself and at least 25 other people, authorities said. The motive of the man, who was preliminary identified as Serhii Batryn, a council member belonging to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s Servant of the People party, was unclear.
Ukraine’s biggest mobile operator, hit by a mass cyber-attack this week, said on Friday that it had restored mobile internet throughout Ukraine and restored international roaming. In a statement on Facebook, Kyivstar said it was working on restoring SMS text messaging. The network, it said, was operating on all standards, including 4G.
Russia’s central bank on Friday raised its key interest rate to 16 percent, announcing a fifth hike since summer in a bid to fight accelerating inflation. The central bank has been grappling with the economic fallout of the offensive in Ukraine that includes western sanctions, a surge in government military spending and the call-up of hundreds of thousands of men.
Ukraine’s Interior Ministry placed the head of Russia’s Orthodox Church, a backer of the Kremlin’s 21-month-old war against Kyiv, on a wanted list after security services accused him of abetting the conflict. The measure is purely symbolic as Patriarch Kirill is in Russia and under no threat of arrest.
Japan announced expanded sanctions over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, revealing dozens of newly sanctioned firms and other organisations, including export bans against some outside Russia and its ally Belarus. Tokyo added to its sanctions list 57 organisations in Russia and six others in countries including the United Arab Emirates, Armenia, Syria and Uzbekistan, the trade ministry said in a statement.
Russian anti-aircraft units destroyed 26 Ukrainian drones over the Crimean peninsula on Friday, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Telegram. Separately, the Russia-installed governor of part of the southern Kherson region held by Moscow, Vladimir Saldo, reported on Telegram that Russian anti-aircraft units had downed at least 15 aerial targets near the town of Henichesk and the defence ministry said Russian forces shot down six Ukrainian drones in the border region of Kursk.
Ukraine has agreed dozens of contracts for joint production or technology exchanges with western partners, Kyiv said on Friday, as it strives to reduce its dependence on military supplies from the west and to boost domestic output.
“We have dozens of new contracts between companies on joint production or technology exchange,” defence minister Rustem Umerov said in a Facebook post.Polish hauliers on Friday said they expected to resume a month-long blockade at the largest freight crossing point with Ukraine, as their Slovak counterparts announced the end of their protest. Truckers from both countries are demanding the reintroduction of permits to enter the European Union for their Ukrainian competitors, which the 27-nation bloc had waived after Russia invaded Ukraine.
