Ukraine has restarted oil transit through the Druzhba pipeline to Hungary and Slovakia, a development that could help unlock a long-stalled €90-billion ($106 billion) EU loan for Kyiv after weeks of political deadlock driven by Budapest’s veto.
Slovak Economy Minister Denisa Saková said on Facebook that Ukraine had resumed pumping through the pipeline, with deliveries to Slovakia expected to restart as early as Thursday.
According to Ukraine’s pipeline operator Ukrtransnafta, cited by Saková, the pressure in the system began increasing early Wednesday as operators started refilling the section running from Belarus into Ukrainian territory.
The restart comes as EU countries prepared Wednesday to push forward with the massive financial package for Ukraine, which has been blocked for months by Hungary.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a nationalist leader who recently lost elections, has used the loan as leverage in a broader dispute with Kyiv over the Druzhba pipeline, which carries Russian crude through Ukraine to Central Europe.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said Tuesday that repair work on a section of the pipeline damaged in a Russian strike had been completed and urged the EU to approve the urgently needed funding package.
Budapest, however, has maintained it would only lift its veto once oil deliveries physically resumed.
An EU official told AFP that ambassadors from the bloc’s 27 member states meeting in Brussels were expected later Wednesday to give final approval to the loan.
Hungary would then have a limited window to either agree or formally object in writing.
The same meeting was also expected to consider a new package of sanctions against Russia, previously stalled by the dispute.
Zelensky has repeatedly criticized EU states that continue to import Russian oil and gas, arguing the revenues directly fund Moscow’s war effort, now in its fifth year.
The dispute has also unfolded against shifting political dynamics in Budapest, where Orban’s recent electoral defeat has fueled expectations that his pro-EU successor Peter Magyar could unblock the loan after taking office in May.
Slovakia, which had previously aligned with Hungary in blocking new sanctions, said it would drop its veto once oil deliveries through Druzhba resume.