INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
If he had chosen to use his veto Orban could have derailed the summit, but he backed down one day after the European Commission unlocked 10
billion euros ($10.4 billion) in frozen funds for Hungary."Orban made his case, made it very strongly," said Irish premier Leo Varadkar."He
disagrees with this decision and he's changing his opinion in that sense, but essentially decided not to use the veto power."Alongside the
behind formal negotiations.Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky, who did not attend the knife-edge summit and was in Germany, hailed the
decision as "a victory that motivates, inspires, and strengthens."And Moldova's President Maia Sandu declared: "Moldova turns a new page
today with the EU's go-ahead for accession talks
Moldova is ready to rise to the challenge."Earlier, Zelensky had warned that if the EU leaders had bowed to Orban's stance, they would
hand Russia's President Vladimir Putin an easy political victory.50-billion-euro questionAttention at the summit now turns to a plan to
grant Ukraine a four-year 50-billion-euro funding package from the EU budget that Orban has also threatened to block.Kyiv desperately needs
the money to prop up its war-torn economy, and to change the narrative that Western support is waning.Most EU leaders wanted this week's
accused the Hungarian leader of holding Kyiv's survival hostage in a bid to force Brussels to release billions of euros of EU funds frozen
over a rule of law dispute.In what some saw as a last-minute concession, the European Commission, the EU's executive, agreed on Wednesday
to unblock 10 billion euros of that cash.Another 21 billion euros still remain out of Orban's grasp, but Orban denied that Hungary was
making a link between the cash and its Ukraine stance
"That's not our style," he said.No 'victory' for PutinZelensky, in an impassioned plea via video link, earlier told the leaders "now is
not the time for half-measures or hesitation."He said failure to open membership talks with Ukraine would be used by Putin "against you
stressed the need for unity and to send a strong signal of support for Ukraine, which has already seen Washington's support threatened by
maneuvers in the United States Congress.The situation on the battlefield in Ukraine does not look promising for Kyiv after a
Putin boasted on Thursday that he has 617,000 troops in Ukraine, and that their positions are improving.Across Brussels, at NATO HQ,
alliance secretary general Jens Stoltenberg warned that the West must continue supporting Ukraine in order to protect the rest of Europe."If
Putin wins in Ukraine, there is real risk that his aggression will not end there
