On June 24, the EU approved the first tranche of military aid to Ukraine in the amount of up to €1.4 billion, which will come from revenues from frozen Russian assets.
Diplomatic sources told Politico about this.
The money is sent to Ukraine through the Ukraine Aid Fund (UAF), but the payments have so far been blocked by Hungary.
The EU Councilʼs legal service now argues that Budapest cannot stop these payments, having abstained from voting earlier this year to establish the Fund. The reason the bypass is allowed is that the funds do not come from EU taxpayers, officials said.
The money will not go to compensation, as is usually the case with the Armed Forces, but to the direct purchase of weapons, including ammunition and air defense systems. A quarter of the amount will be used for procurement in Ukrainian industry.
The countries had until 11:00 a.m. to express their opinion, and none voted against, according to an internal message from the EU Council. The decision did not require unanimity, which means that Hungary could not block it.
Despite todayʼs agreement, Hungary continues to block the payment of €6.6 billion under the program for the Armed Forces as partial compensation for weapons purchased for Ukraine. According to one of the diplomats, Budapest is "furious" about what happened today.
The final amount of proceeds from the frozen assets that will go to Kyiv is still unclear, but diplomats say it ranges between €1.2 billion and €1.4 billion.
An official announcement is expected later that day at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg.