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EU leaders to decide on 'life or death' support for Ukraine

European Union leaders meet in Brussels today for what's expected to be a fractious summit dominated by Ukraine's future relations with the bloc.

A two-day European Union summit gets underway in Brussels with the spotlight firmly on Hungary to see whether it blocks financial and political support for Ukraine in its war with Russia.

Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban has for weeks threatened to veto the bloc’s plans to allocate €50bn ($55bn) to Kyiv over the next four years, as well as a decision to start EU membership talks with Kyiv, for as long as his country’s EU funding is not fully unblocked.

On the eve of the summit, the European Commission unblocked €10bn ($11bn) of Hungary’s EU funds which had been frozen over rule of law concerns.

So how far has this likely cleared the impasse between Hungary and the wider membership of the European bloc?

Newsday asked Engjellushe Morina - a senior policy fellow with the Wider Europe Programme at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

“Today and tomorrow European unity will be on display, or the lack of it. If they can’t get together… what does this really mean for the EU?â€

(Pic: President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky answering questions from the press in Norway; Credit: Reuters)

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