Polish diplomatic sources believe it is highly unlikely that Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin would choose to fly over Polish airspace on his way to a planned meeting with US President Donald Trump in Budapest.

The EU is reportedly discussing a new enlargement model that would grant new member states limited voting rights at first – a proposal that could make Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán more amenable to Ukraine's accession.

On Monday 20 October, the EU Council approved the RePowerEU mechanism, which envisages a complete phase-out of Russian fossil fuels by the European Union, by a large majority. Hungary and Slovakia voted against.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy believes that Budapest is not the best location for the talks preliminarily agreed upon between US President Donald Trump and Russian ruler Vladimir Putin.

The European Commission has clarified that current EU sanctions against Russia's leadership do not include a direct ban on entry for Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin or Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

The European Commission is considering the idea of using not only €140 billion of frozen Russian assets held in a financial repository in Belgium.

Ukraine is identified as a key element of the European Union's defence preparedness in the bloc's new defence roadmap.

A Russian FPV drone has attacked a UN humanitarian convoy near the village of Bilozerka in Kherson Oblast, and an Italian official who was accompanying the mission was also there at the time of the strike.

The European Commission and European capitals have condemned Russia's new strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure, which have brought about the first large-scale power outage in Kyiv in a long time.

The Czech Armed Forces have reported that Czechia has also experienced sightings of unidentified drones near strategic sites, including military facilities.

The Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) has approved a presidential decree authorising the deployment of several Ukrainian Navy vessels to the United Kingdom and Türkiye.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has announced that a Ukrainian negotiation team, led by Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko and Andrii Yermak, Head of the President's Office, will visit the United States next week.

Hungary has likely maintained spies in Brussels for years and even attempted to recruit staff from EU institutions, according to a joint investigation by German newspaper Der Spiegel, Belgian newspaper De Tijd and the Hungarian outlet Direkt36.

Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of Russia's Security Council, has said the appearance of unidentified drones over airports and strategic sites in Europe is a "way to scare Europeans with war", but did not directly acknowledge Russia's involvement.