Ukraine will complete in the spring repairs on the damaged oil pipeline Druzhba, which carries Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
At the end of January, the Druzhba oil pipeline was damaged in what Ukraine said was a Russian drone attack.
Supplies of Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia, the last two remaining EU member states dependent on Russian crude flows via Druzhba, have been halted since January 27.
“We will complete the repairs because that is the agreement. I told them we would finish this spring,” Zelenskyy said on Friday in remarks to reporters carried by Reuters.
“A lot has already been done there… Of course, destroyed storage tanks cannot be repaired quickly,” the Ukrainian president added.
Hungary and Slovakia, which have kept close ties with Russia after the invasion of Ukraine, have accused Ukraine of delaying the repair works.
Hungary, whose top officials have remained in contact with Russia’s leadership, including Vladimir Putin, has continuously clashed with its fellow EU member states over plans to ditch Russian gas by 2027 and cut off oil supply from Moscow as soon as possible.
Earlier this year, Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban vetoed a previously agreed EU loan of $105 billion (90 billion euros) to Ukraine, due to the dispute over the Druzhba oil pipeline repairs and oil supplies to Hungary.
Hungary last month moved to phase out natural gas supplies to Ukraine in the third quarter, in a Hungarian move to retaliate for the halted oil flows from Russia via the Druzhba pipeline.
Hungary has banned its gas operator from holding auctions for supply to Ukraine in the third quarter, after Orban threatened several times that Budapest would cut off gas deliveries to Ukraine until oil flows via the Druzhba pipeline resume.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
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