European Union countries have started studying ways to bypass Hungary's veto on Ukraine's financing as Budapest blocks Brussels from allocating more than 6bn euros in aid to Kyiv. This was reported by the Bloomberg news agency citing sources.

According to them, the EU diplomatic service is already exploring ways to “allow members of the community to make voluntary contributions” to the so-called European Peace Fund. It is noted that this would make it possible in the future to avoid the currently required “unanimous support” of all EU members when making decisions on financing Ukraine. The agency's interlocutors emphasized that EU ambassadors will meet on Tuesday to discuss the details of the plan. According to Bloomberg estimates, it is not yet known what kind of support the idea of voluntary contributions could receive since “many key decisions of the bloc must be taken unanimously.”

Earlier, the Financial Times reported that the EU had agreed to provide Ukraine with a new loan worth about $44.48 billion by the end of the year, regardless of US participation. According to it, such a step may be taken amid Brussels' fear that Budapest will prevent the US from providing the guarantees needed to participate in the loan repayment by frozen Russian assets. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government is trying to delay the decision until after the U.S. presidential election, but the EU must now prepare an alternative to ensure aid reaches Kyiv before the end of the year. The decision was supposed to be made by a majority vote of EU countries rather than unanimously in order to bypass the Hungarian veto.