Hungary’s Prime Minister has announced that the country would gradually stop sending natural gas to Ukraine until oil flows to Hungary via the Druzhba pipeline resume. He also added that Hungary would instead use the gas to fill its own reserves (Hungary’s Government statement, 25/03/2026).
- Deliveries to Slovakia and Hungary stopped at the end of January 2026. Hungary, along with Slovakia, blamed Ukraine for an outage on the Druzhba pipeline, which supplies their refineries with Russian crude oil transported through Ukraine.
- Both governments accuse Ukraine of blocking the reopening of the pipeline, while Ukraine claims it was damaged by Russian strikes. Slovakia asserts that the pipeline has already been repaired but that Ukraine is keeping it closed to pressure the two countries, which currently oppose Ukraine’s EU accession negotiations (KEI, 24/02/2026).
- Additionally, Ukraine’s President stated earlier in March 2026 that he is reluctant to allow Russian oil to continue transiting through his country.
- Also in early March 2026, Slovakia announced that it had cut emergency power supplies to Ukraine (KEI, 06/03/2026).
The Druzhba pipeline, which runs from eastern Russia into Central Europe, remains a vital source of oil for both Slovakia and Hungary, two countries exempt from EU sanctions on Russian refined oil imports.
As for Ukraine, the country imports a significant portion of its gas needs from Hungary.
Interested in Global Energy Research?
Enerdata's premium online information service provides up-to-date market reports on 110+ countries. The reports include valuable market data and analysis as well as a daily newsfeed, curated by our energy analysts, on the oil, gas, coal and power markets.
This user-friendly tool gives you the essentials about the domestic markets of your concern, including market structure, organisation, actors, projects and business perspectives.