It had all the makings of one of those nightmare EU summits.
A crucially important meeting that would drag on rancorously late beyond the end of the week.
The villain of the piece, Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orban – whose critics call him Putin’s puppet – had arrived looking up for a fight.
There was nothing to discuss, he said, when it came to talks on Ukraine’s accession to the European Union.
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But by early evening a summit surprise – striding into the reporters’ hall, EU Council president Charles Michel had a breakthrough to announce.
The EU had approved the start of talks on Ukraine joining the union. Hungary‘s opposition had appeared to crumble.
This is a huge moment for Ukraine. Ukrainians have a chance now to meet the destiny they set themselves almost a decade ago when they rose up to throw off Russian domination.
And it gives them even more to fight for.
It will be a massive boost to morale as they prepare for a long hard winter, with their infrastructure set to be pummelled again and again by armadas of Russian drones.
And not a moment too soon. As EU leaders were meeting in Brussels, in Moscow, their antagonist, President Putin, was sounding as belligerent as ever.
President Zelenskyy and EU leaders in February
Ursula von der Leyen, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Charles Michel at an EU summit in February