PRESSURE mounted on Hungary today not to veto the opening of European Union membership talks and the supply of economic aid to war-torn Ukraine at a pivotal EU summit this week, after far-right Prime Minister Viktor Orban demanded that the issue be struck from the agenda.

In a draft of the summit statement, the EU’s leaders want to decide to open accession negotiations with Ukraine.

But Mr Orban is not backing down. He insists that a “strategic discussion” is needed given the stalemate on the battlefield and uncertainty about United States leadership after elections next year.

“I hope that the European unity will not be broken because this is not the moment to weaken our support to Ukraine. Just the contrary, this is the moment to increase it,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told reporters in Brussels, where he chaired a meeting of the bloc’s foreign ministers.

Decisions on EU enlargement, which also concern Bosnia, Georgia and Moldova, this week and a review of the bloc’s long-term budget that includes €50 billion (£42bn) in aid for Kiev, can only be taken unanimously by all 27 member countries.