Hungary has set a €30 billion (£25.8 billion) price for dropping its veto over funding for Ukraine’s war effort.

Budapest has threatened to block the €50 billion (£43 billion) support package for Kyiv ahead of a European summit in Brussels later this week.

Hungary says it is owed €30 billion withheld by the bloc in a row over the erosion of democracy in the central European state.

But Budapest hinted on Wednesday it would “consider contributing” to a new round of Ukraine funding if Brussels were to unlock tens of billions for Hungary that were previously held back.

Brussels is under pressure to deliver support to Kyiv after Volodymyr Zelensky failed to convince Republican politicians in the US to end their own opposition to funding.

The European Commission is expected to release €10 billion (£8.6 billion) of Hungary’s blocked funds at the summit. Budapest has repeatedly signalled it is willing to “make financial deals on financial matters”, but remains opposed to offering Ukraine official talks to join the bloc.

Hungary’s threat of a veto over both financial and political support risks dealing a double-blow at a time Ukrainian forces are under significant pressure on the front lines in the war against Russia.

Figures released last week by the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a German think tank tracking aid to Ukraine, said commitments had reached a new low between August and October.

Global promises of just €2.11 billion (£1.8 billion) of support were offered to Kyiv, a 90 per cent decrease compared to the same period last year.

It is not clear if the EU’s offer to unfreeze €10 billion for Budapest will be enough to ease through the financial package for Ukraine.

Balazs Orban, the prime minister’s aide, warned EU membership for Ukraine remains a “red line” for Budapest.

He said the bloc should instead offer a strategic partnership to Kyiv because it hasn’t yet met the criteria to start accession talks.

“Sending a negative signal to Ukraine is the opposite of what Hungary wants,” he added.

Kyiv and Budapest have shared a tetchy relationship since Mr Zelensky personally called out Viktor Orban, Hungary’s prime minister, for his lack of support at a European summit in March last year. 

This week the Ukrainian president was filmed having a heated discussion with Mr Orban at the inauguration of Javier Milei, the new president of Argentina.

 “I asked him to tell me one reason why,” Mr Zelensky said when asked about his meeting with Mr Orban on Sunday.

“Not three, not five, not 10. Tell me one reason. I’m waiting for (an) answer.”

Mr Orban had told the Hungarian parliament: “Considering the numbers, economic analyses and taking it seriously that talks (with Ukraine) would aim to grant membership … then we must say that this thought at the moment is absurd, ridiculous and not serious.”

The Ukrainians have criticised the Hungarian government’s close ties with Vladimir Putin.

“They shake the hands of Putin, and that annoys us,” a senior Ukrainian official said, echoing similar frustrations from Hungary’s EU and Nato allies.

Whereas Budapest argues Ukraine is one of the most corrupt countries in the world and has been abusing 120,000 Hungarian national minorities living there.

‘Violate rights of Hungarian minorities’

“I don’t understand why it is important for the Ukrainians to violate the rights of Hungarian minorities who do not pose any threat to them,” political director Balazs Orban told the Telegraph.

Kyiv has been accused of restricting access to minority languages, including Hungarian, in favour of teaching Ukrainian.

Ukraine has dozens of minorities and protecting their rights was one of the seven reforms demanded by the European Commission before it could recommend membership talks.

The country has introduced legislation it hopes satisfies the concerns of the Hungarian government, as well as Romania and Bulgaria.

But Mr Orban’s supporters insist the issue runs beyond legislation and is about the “nasty things” done to the Hungarians living inside Ukraine’s borders.

Dymtro Kuleba, Ukraine’s foreign minister, hit back: “We are not doing anything horrible to minorities because they are our citizens and they are all equal to us. All citizens in Ukraine are equal, irrespective of their race, nationality or ethnicity.

“The idea of persecution of Hungarian national minorities is a big fake that is being disseminated. The law that Ukraine has recently passed on education, on the use of language of national minorities in education and media fully accommodates the concerns of the Hungarian government.”