Ukraine has resumed pumping Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia through the Druzhba pipeline after completing repairs on a section damaged in a Russian attack in January.
The Soviet era pipeline has been at the centre of a standoff between Ukraine and the European Union on one side and Hungary and Slovakia on the other, as both EU members continue to import Russian crude via the route despite the ongoing war. Kyiv hopes that restoring flows will clear the final obstacle to unlocking tens of billions of euros in EU financial support that had been held up by Hungary’s outgoing nationalist leader Viktor Orban.
An energy industry source in Ukraine told AFP that “oil transit was launched and pumping began” on Wednesday. Hungarian energy company MOL said it expects the first shipments to arrive in Hungary and Slovakia by Thursday at the latest, while Slovakia’s Economy Minister Denisa Sakova also confirmed that deliveries were due in the early hours of Thursday.
Orban had blocked a 90 billion euro EU loan package for Ukraine, using the frozen funds as leverage in a bid to pressure Kyiv to speed up pipeline repairs and resume shipments. His defeat in this month’s elections was widely seen as opening the way for the loan to be finally approved.
Hours after Ukraine confirmed that oil had started flowing again, EU officials gave preliminary approval for the long delayed 90 billion euro support facility to move forward. However, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who has often clashed with both Kyiv and Brussels, warned that he “would not be surprised if the 90 billion loan were unblocked and then oil supplies were cut off again.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly criticised the fact that some EU countries still buy Russian oil and gas, arguing that energy revenues remain a key source of funding for Moscow’s war effort more than four years after the full scale invasion began.
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