EU inspects Druzhba pipeline in bid to unclog Hungary’s block on Ukraine aid

2026.03.19 10:50 A meter shows near zero-level pressure at a line production station on a Druzhba pipeline in Brody, Ukraine. Photo: Reuters European Union experts have arrived in Ukraine to assess the condition of the Druzhba oil pipeline, state energy firm Naftogaz said, after its closure in January caused a row with Hungary that is blocking an EU loan to Kyiv. The EU last week proposed sending a mission to inspect the pipeline. Ukraine later said it had accepted the EU offer of technical support and funding to restore oil flows through the damaged pipeline. Hungary and Slovakia have been cut off from Russian oil deliveries via Druzhba since late January, after Kyiv said a Russian strike hit pipeline equipment in western Ukraine and would require time for repairs. “Naftogaz appreciates the EU’s offer of financial and technical ‌assistance to rebuild the infrastructure assets of the Brody pumping station,” Naftogaz CEO Serhiy Koretskyi said on social media late on Wednesday. He posted a photo of ‌himself sitting at a table with several unnamed experts who he described as members of a “technical working group”. Koretskyi ⁠said the group’s work should help Naftogaz and its subsidiary Ukrtransnafta restore the pipeline “in accordance with the highest European engineering and safety standards and to prevent further terrorist attacks”. A construction memorial plate is seen at the receiver station of the Druzhba pipeline at the Danube Refinery of Hungarian MOL Company in February 2022. Photo: AFP He did not say whether the group of experts planned to visit the damaged oil pipeline itself. Hungary this month sent a fact-finding mission to Ukraine to investigate the suspension of oil transit through the pipeline. Kyiv has not provided any official information on the outcome of the mission. Hungary and Slovakia, the only EU countries still importing Russian oil, have accused Ukraine of deliberately delaying the resumption of oil flows for political reasons. “I will never su

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