Hungary’s Veto on Ukraine Remains, Just Moved Down the Road

Hungary and Ukraine have reached a comprehensive agreement restoring linguistic, educational, and cultural rights to roughly 100,000 ethnic Hungarians in the Zakarpattia region. Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar announced that Budapest will conditionally support opening Ukraine’s first EU negotiating cluster once these measures are codified into Ukrainian law. While this milestone unblocks a two-year political stalemate and pocketed €16.4 billion in un-frozen EU funds for Budapest, it defers rather than eliminates Hungary’s veto power.