EU leaders have unanimously agreed to extend €50 billion, around $54 billion, in new aid to Ukraine, overcoming weeks of resistance from the sole holdout, Hungarian PM Viktor Orban, who vetoed the aid package in December. Leaders piled pressure on Orban ahead of the summit, finally convincing him to drop his opposition earlier today. (Reuters)
Our Take
This aid package is a significant boost for Ukraine, not just for the country’s finances but also for its morale, especially as it comes against the backdrop of what has been a disheartening year for Kyiv.
The long-anticipated Ukrainian offensive largely failed, and there is growing pessimism in the West about potential breakthroughs in the future, leading some observers to call the war a stalemate. To be sure, others have pushed back on that description, but regardless, there has been a clear lack of decisive victories for Ukraine in the past year. That hasn’t gone unnoticed in Western capitals, where some policymakers increasingly view the war as a lost cause and blame Kyiv for the lack of tangible progress.