Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he’ll continue to block key European Union aid to Ukraine until flows of Russian oil via the Druzhba pipeline are fully restored, despite President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s decision to allow EU experts into his country to help with repairs.
“If Zelenskiy wants to get his money from Brussels, he needs to open the Druzhba pipeline,” Orban said in a video on social media. He again accused Kyiv of deliberately blocking cheap Russian crude to influence Hungary’s election on April 12.
The Ukrainian leader accepted an “offer of the necessary technical support and funding to be able to conclude the repair work,” he said in a letter to EU Council President Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen published on Tuesday.
The decision follows weeks of tensions between Kyiv and EU member states Hungary and Slovakia, which said they’d veto a key package of €90 billion ($103 billion) in loans for the war-ravaged country until the flows are restored. They also accused Ukraine of dragging its feet in fixing the pipeline, which was damaged in a Russian drone strike in January. Zelenskiy has criticized Hungary’s stance as “blackmail.”
The EU has engaged in intense discussions with its member states and Ukraine at all levels to restore the flows, von der Leyen said in a post on X Tuesday. European experts are available to start their work in Ukraine immediately, she said.
The flows through the Druzhba pipeline, which runs from Russia across western Ukraine and is a key supply route for landlocked Hungary and Slovakia, have historically averaged some 200,000 barrels a day in winter.
In his letter to top EU officials Zelenskiy reiterated that allegations that Kyiv is deliberately obstructing the flow through Druzhba were unfounded. He also called on the bloc to allow the disbursement of the first loan tranche in early April and for the full phasing out of EU imports of Russian oil by the end of 2027.
Although Druzhba has been hit more than 20 times since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, now in its fifth year, the severity of the latest damage means restoring it may take more time, Zelenskiy told reporters in Kyiv on Saturday.
Repairs on the pipeline have already begun and restoring flows could take about a month, according to people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity, Bloomberg reported on Sunday.
Ukraine is also working on an alternative solution to restore oil capacity via the pipeline, Zelenskiy said in the letter on Tuesday. He said that a bypass is nearing completion and should become operational within approximately one and a half months, allowing the crucial Brody pumping station to resume normal operations.
“This will ensure a full restoration of flows, of course in the absence of any further attacks from Russia,” Zelenskiy said.
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