Russian oil has resumed flowing through the Ukrainian section of the Druzhba pipeline after a halt that had lasted since January 2026, enabling Hungary to lift its veto on a EUR90bn EU loan to Ukraine.
- Deliveries of oil to Slovakia and Hungary from the Druzhba pipeline were suspended at the end of January 2026. Both Hungary and Slovakia accused Ukraine of causing an outage on the pipeline, which supplies their refineries with Russian crude oil transported via Ukraine.
- The two governments claimed that Ukraine had deliberately blocked the pipeline’s reopening, while Ukraine maintained that the line had been damaged by Russian strikes. Slovakia stated that the pipeline had already been repaired but that Ukraine had kept it closed to exert pressure on the two countries, which oppose Ukraine’s EU accession negotiations (KEI, 24/02/2026).
- Earlier in March 2026, Ukraine’s President said he was reluctant to allow Russian oil to continue transiting through his country. In response, Slovakia announced the same month that it had cut emergency power supplies to Ukraine (KEI, 06/03/2026).
The Hungarian oil group MOL reported that Ukraine had informed it that deliveries of Russian crude had resumed through the pipeline. The EU had agreed to the EUR90bn loan in 2025 to support Ukraine’s liquidity through 2026 and 2027, but Hungary’s former Prime Minister Viktor Orban and the Slovak government had blocked its disbursement.
The Druzhba pipeline, which runs from eastern Russia into Central Europe, remains a vital source of oil for Slovakia and Hungary, two countries exempt from EU sanctions on Russian refined oil imports. For its part, Ukraine imports a significant share of its gas requirements from Hungary (KEI, 27/03/2026).