The president of Ukraine, Volodímir Zelensky, briefly referred in his speech to the nation last night to the intense verbal exchange he had with the Prime Minister of Hungary, Víktor Orbán, during the inauguration this Sunday of Javier Milei as the new president of Argentina. Argentine television cameras captured both leaders having an apparently tense conversation.

“On the sidelines of the event, I spoke with Hungarian Prime Minister Orbán. It was a very direct conversation, focused on European affairs,” Zelensky explained in his speech.

The images of both leaders speaking intensely standing and without interpreters or advisors in the area that had been assigned to them to attend the inauguration of Argentine President Javier Milei have aroused curiosity and speculation about the content of the conversation.

The Orbán Government has repeated several times in recent days that it will vote against the opening of accession negotiations between the European Union (EU) and Ukraine in the European Council that will decide on the issue in the middle of this week.

The Hungarian Prime Minister says that Ukraine is not ready to take that step. He has also cited as a reason the alleged discrimination to which the Hungarian minority in Ukraine would be subjected.

Kyiv changed its minority law again last week to align with EU recommendations, and Ukraine has maintained contacts at the highest level with the Orbán government for the first time in months to try to convince it to change its position in the next European Council.

Orbán has been the European leader most openly critical of Ukraine and calls for stopping military aid to Kyiv. The Hungarian prime minister has been in favor of negotiating with Russia since the beginning of the conflict, and is the only major European leader who has not wanted to meet with Zelensky so far.

Given the imminence of the summit on December 14 and 15, the high representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, stated this Monday that he trusts that “the unity” of the EU will not be broken regarding support for Kyiv. , which requested that it be increased.

“I hope that European unity is not broken, because this is not the time to weaken our support for Ukraine but to increase it,” Borrell told the press upon his arrival at a Council of Foreign Ministers.

Borrell stated that the matter will be discussed by the EU leaders at the summit they are holding in Brussels this Thursday and Friday, but in any case he highlighted the fact that Orbán has recently visited the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and that yesterday he will interview in Argentina with Zelensky.

The foreign ministers plan to address support for Ukraine in their session today, and to do so they will also meet with their Ukrainian counterpart, Dmitro Kuleba.

Specifically, they will talk about the proposals for long-term security commitments that the heads of State and Government will discuss again this week at their summit, in which they will also discuss the possibility of opening negotiations with Ukraine for its accession.

Asked about Germany’s idea of ??privileging national aid to Ukraine over community aid, Borrell considered that “we must review the way in which we manage our European level of support.”

The high representative had proposed providing Ukraine with military support of 20 billion euros over four years through the European Peace Support Fund (EFAP), which since the start of the war has allowed member states to co-finance the delivery of material. lethal and non-lethal to Kyiv.

Borrell noted that, for the moment, they have mainly delivered material that was in the reserves of European armies, but acknowledged that several Member States are now in favor of creating new capabilities.

“I think they are right,” he noted, and said he is interested in ideas from Germany or other countries on the financial management of European aid.

In any case, he stated that “it would be very important to continue doing this at the European level, not just country by country.” “Someone has to coordinate, the FEAP has done a good job of stimulating many resources for Ukraine,” he indicated, European support that amounted to 26 billion euros.