A European Commission spokeswoman on February 17 confirmed that Brussels was in touch with Ukraine regarding the Druzhba pipeline that has been damaged since late January, preventing Russian oil from flowing to Hungary and Slovakia.
“We are in contact with Ukraine on the timeline for reparation of the Druzhba oil pipeline and how quickly this might be up and running,” Anna-Kaisa Itkonen told journalists in Brussels, adding the EU executive was ready to call an emergency coordination group with relevant parties to discuss alternative routes to fuel supply.
Itkonen also said there were “no short-term risks to security of supply for Hungary and Slovakia” as they hold 90 days of reserve stocks.
The halt of Russian oil via the pipeline has caused tensions between Ukraine and EU member states Hungary and Slovakia.
While Kyiv has maintained that a Russian drone attack was responsible for the disruption starting on January 27, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said on February 15 that Ukraine had delayed the restart of the oil flow in order to pressure Hungary to drop its veto on Ukraine’s future membership of the European Union.
Fico said this was “political blackmail.”
While the European Union has imposed an import ban on Russian oil via pipelines over the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine, landlocked Hungary and Slovakia secured exemptions to those sanctions.
On February 16, Budapest also expressed its wish to invoke the temporary exemption to import seaborne Russian crude oil via Croatia using the Adria pipeline.
“We request Croatia to enable the transport of Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia via the Adria pipeline, as our sanctions exemption provides the possibility to import Russian oil by sea if pipeline deliveries are disrupted,” Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto wrote on X.
Croatian Economy Minister Ante Susnjar said Zagreb should be able to help, tweeting that “Croatia will not allow Central Europe’s fuel supply to be endangered. We are ready to help solve the acute disruption.”
He did, however, also criticize Budapest and Bratislava in the same post on X for so far not being able to diversify from Russian energy imports by adding that “the Adria pipeline is ready, so there are no technical excuses left for staying tied to Russian crude for any EU country. A barrel bought from Russia may appear cheaper to some countries, but helps fund war and attacks on Ukrainian people. It’s time to stop that war profiteering.”
A report released on February 16 by the Center for the Study of Democracy (CSD), a think tank in Bulgaria, also found Hungary did not need Russian oil because other sources were readily available.
“There are no technical or economic grounds for prolonging the sanctions exemption for Russian oil in Central Europe. Hungary’s continued dependence is a policy choice that weakens EU unity and undermines the credibility of the sanctions regime. Phasing out Russian crude by the end of 2026 is both feasible and essential for Europe’s long-term energy security,” said Martin Vladimirov, director of CSD’s Energy and Climate Program.
