Hungary has used its veto on the European Peace Facility to block a €500m military aid package for Ukraine. The EPF is an off-budget (EU Member States pay their contributions directly every year, based on the estimated annual budget for the EPF), funding mechanism for EU actions with military and defence implications under the Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP). It has, according to the official website of the European Union, “a total budget of EUR 7 979 000 000 for the period 2021-2027, with annual ceilings from EUR 399 million in 2021 to EUR 1.434 billion in 2027.” The fund from the EPF is used by the bloc to finance foreign militaries and reimburse its own members who send arms to foreign conflicts – but Budapest has expressed concerns the EPF must remain “global” in its scope and not be exclusively used to aid Ukraine. 
Prior to last February, the ‘Peace Facility’ had only been utilised to send non-lethal supplies to Georgia, Mali, Moldova, Mozambique, and Ukraine for a total of less than $125 million prior to last February.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has on several previous occasions shown reluctance to escalate the war in Ukraine which he describes as contrary to European interests. He has refused to let his NATO allies move arms shipments through Hungarian territory and supports a Chinese diplomatic strategy to resolve the conflict by ceding Eastern territory to Russia, which is unacceptable to Kiev. 
Late last year, Hungary held up an €18 billion ($19.5 billion) tranche of economic aid for Ukraine, which the bloc would have borrowed on global markets. Orban argued the EU would have become “indebted” over Ukraine, but relented when the EU lifted a freeze it had placed on grant money for Hungary.
American military officials have publicly expressed doubt that the Ukrainian military can achieve their strategic goals, and leaked Pentagon documents suggest that Washington is bracing for the failure of Kiev’s summer offensive.