Ambassadors greenlight the 18th sanctions round ahead of formal Council approval: Malta and Slovakia dropped their vetoes after receiving key guarantees.
The EU enlargement commissioner noted that Ukraine had fulfilled the required conditions. Budapest demands the restoration of legislation granting de facto privileges to the Hungarian minority.
Hungary launched an anti-EU campaign featuring Zelenskyy and EU leaders, vetoes Ukraine military aid, blocks declarations, and spreads disinformation about Ukrainian migrants.
Hungary says it may lift its veto over the €50 billion EU financial assistance package for Ukraine if the aid is disbursed and reviewed each year, granting Orbán influence to block funding annually.
Zelenskyy vetoes a recently adopted bill to maintain transparency in electronic asset declarations, saying that e-declarations should be public now, not in a year as the bill suggested.