Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is trying to save face after surrendering to the demands of other EU leaders at the special European Union Council summit on February 1 to support the EU's four-year €50bn aid plan for Ukraine. Orban approved the very same proposals he had rejected a month earlier, which forced EU leaders to convene the new summit.

"We were concerned that EU funds due to Hungary, which the country has not yet received from the European Commission, would sooner or later end up in Ukraine. And we were also afraid that we would provide Ukraine funding for the long run [without any oversight]," Orban said in a Facebook post after Hungary’s leader left the summit, looking weary and exhausted.

He also claimed, without any justification, that Hungary had avoided the scenario where it would have to send weapons to Ukraine, which had never been on the agenda.

Hungary’s radical rightwing leader has campaigned strongly against the aid package and the launch of accession talks with Ukraine. In the latest national consultation survey, people were asked whether they supported giving money to Ukraine before Hungary had received EU funds. Of the 1.5mn respondents, 99% agreed with the government’s proposal.

After the vote, Orban said he had received "guarantees" that Hungary could gain access to EU funds suspended by Brussels because of rule of law concerns and corruption. According to a diplomat, Hungary’s leader was only given assurances that the question of blocked funds, around €22bn, would be handled impartially.

According to his press chief, Orban held bilateral talks with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and French President Emmanuel Macron in Brussels on the eve of the summit, and he skipped the EU leaders' dinner because of these talks.

The Hungarian premier also posted a picture on social media where he is seen with EC President Ursula von der Leyen, Charles Michel, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. According to local press reports, the agreement was reached before the summit would commence.

Analysts had expected long and tedious talks, but the Hungarian prime minister conceded to demands, seeing the huge pressure from his peers.

He eventually dropped his plans for an annual review of the programme, which would have given him regular opportunities to veto the aid package and hold the bloc to ransom. To win him over, the bloc proposed an annual debate, but not a full-fledged budgetary review.

There will be the possibility of one review, after two years, but only if the Council unanimously agrees. “If needed, in two years the European Council will invite the Commission to make a proposal for review in the context of the new MFF [medium-term financial framework],” the conclusions state.

Peter Balazs, a former foreign minister and EU commissioner, said Thursday's vote was a big failure for Orban, who is trying to sell his defeat as a victory to his supporters. The EU summit had to be convened because of his earlier veto and on Thursday but he failed to find any allies and he was completely isolated, he added.