Oil is expected to flow again through the Druzhba oil pipeline from Ukraine to Slovakia on Thursday morning, Slovakia's Economy Minister Denisa Sakova said, according to Reuters. The announcement comes on the same day that EU heads of state and government meet for an informal summit in Cyprus.
The pipeline, which supplies Hungary and Slovakia with Russian oil, has been a point of contention between Ukraine and Hungary in particular. It runs through Ukraine and has been closed since January, when Ukraine said it was hit by a Russian drone attack. There is no word yet on when the oil is expected to flow to Hungary again.
The expectation has been that once the oil starts flowing, it will probably lead to Hungary lifting its veto against a 90 billion euro EU loan to Ukraine. The same applies to the 20th package of sanctions against Russia.
The outgoing Hungarian Prime Minister, Viktor Orbán, has said several times that Hungary will lift its veto against a 90 billion euro EU loan to Ukraine when oil again arrives in Hungary through the pipeline.
Zelenskyj: Druzhba oil pipeline ready for use
On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj announced that the Druzhba oil pipeline had been repaired and was ready for use. He wrote this in a post on the social media X.
Viktor Orbán - who lost power in parliamentary elections earlier this month - has accused Ukraine of blocking the resumption of Russian oil supplies via the Druzhba pipeline for political reasons.
The pipeline runs from Russia through Belarus and Ukraine to Hungary and Slovakia. The Ukrainian government has denied the allegations and stressed that the pipeline needed to be repaired.
It comes as no surprise that the pipeline will soon be back in service. EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos told the European Parliament on Monday that she expected it to happen this week.
And on Tuesday, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said she expected "positive decisions" on Wednesday to lift the veto on the loan.
/ritzau/
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