Akel’s Giorgos Georgiou voted against the European Parliament’s resolution for continued support for Ukraine, while independent member of the European Parliament Fidias Panayiotou abstained on the motion.

Disy’s Michalis Hadjipantela, Diko’s Costas Mavrides, and Elam’s Geadis Geadi all voted in favour of the motion, while Disy’s second MEP Loukas Fourlas was not present at the vote.

The European Parliament had been asked to reaffirm its continued support for Ukraine in its war against Russia, and for the European Union’s provision of political, financial, humanitarian, military and diplomatic support for the country, “for as long as it takes to secure Ukraine’s victory”.

The motion’s text also condemned Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s recent visit to Russia and stresses that “he does not represent the EU”, while describing the trip as “a blatant violation of the EU’s treaties and common foreign policy”.

It also called on the European Commission to propose long-term financial assistance for the reconstruction of Ukraine, and for the European Council to maintain and extend its sanctions on both Russia and Belarus.

The vote passed with 495 MEPs in favour, 137 against, and 47 abstentions.

Georgiou’s vote follows on from his record in the last parliamentary term, during which he was one of just 40 MEPs who voted against the establishment of the Ukraine Facility, which provided for long-term support for Ukraine.

He was also one of 25 abstentions on the vote for macro-financial assistance to Ukraine after the country was invaded by Russia in 2022, and one of 26 abstentions on the initial resolution against the Russian invasion of Ukraine in March 2022.

Fidias’ abstention is the second in his fledgling career in the European parliament. He abstained on the vote to elect the European Parliament’s president on Tuesday, saying he had “read about” the two candidates, Roberta Metsola and Irene Montero, and decided that “no one deserves our vote”.

Wednesday’s vote is the latest in the opening stages of the new European parliamentary term, with the most important of the week, the ratification of European Commission president-elect Ursula von der Leyen, to take place on Thursday.

The vote looks set to go to the wire, with von der Leyen requiring a simple majority of 361 out of 720 MEPs in a secret ballot.

In deciding which way to vote, Fidias opened a poll on X, the social media platform better known as Twitter, asking his followers whether or not he should approve von der Leyen.

A total of 85 per cent of those who voted said he should not, but there is no way of verifying on such a platform that users with multiple accounts, or even bots, have not voted.

Should von der Leyen fail to win at least 361 votes, the European Council will have to reconvene and nominate a new European Commission president.