EU clashes with Orbán over €50bn Ukraine package

EU leaders have returned to Brussels for a second showdown in two months with Hungary's Viktor Orbán over his refusal to sanction a new €50bn (£43bn) assistance package for Ukraine.

- Lisa O'Carroll

A mixture of frustration and anger prevailed in the city as leaders arrived for dinner last night on the eve of the emergency summit, with aides lamenting the failure of the Hungarian PM to shift position since December, when he first blocked the funds.

"We are really at a crossroads," said one EU official.

Diplomats in Brussels stress that Ukraine will not run out of funding for military equipment and ammunition as this comes through individual member states via the European Peace Facility. But they are worried about liquidity in the Ukrainian economy and the signal that a lack of unity will give to Vladimir Putin.

This EU fund, combined with support from the International Monetary Fund and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, has allowed the salaries of teachers, doctors and soldiers to be paid, cash machines to continue working and buildings to be reconstructed where possible in the past two years.

Efforts to persuade Orbán to budge have redoubled in the past 24 hours, with representatives of the other 26.