EU foreign ministers have again failed to agree on 500 million euros in military aid to Ukraine, and Hungary is demanding guarantees that its OTP Bank will be excluded from the list of international sponsors of Kyiv’s war, Radio Free Europe reports.

Josep BorrellPhoto: Simon Wohlfahrt/AFP/Profimedia

The head of diplomacy of the European bloc, Josep Borrell, confirmed that the ministerial talks in Luxembourg failed to reach an agreement on the eighth tranche of military aid, but did not specify the reasons.

“We have not yet managed to resolve the issue of the eighth tranche of the European Peace Fund. We are still looking for a solution to this problem, but one way or another we will find it,” Borrell said.

Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Agency has temporarily banned OTP and five Greek shipping companies, with the hope that this “will lead to Hungary unblocking €500m of vital EU military aid to Ukraine, as well as removing the possibility of Greece blocking a future package EU sanctions”. against Russia.

While Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto called the decision “a step in the right direction,” Budapest is seeking guarantees that the bank will not be blacklisted later, the Kyiv Independent reports.

The decision to “temporarily suspend” the inclusion of OTP Bank and shipping companies was made after negotiations between the agency, national governments and representatives of the companies, the agency said.