Almost three months after the destruction of a key section of the Druzhba pipeline in western Ukraine, oil is about to flow again to Slovakia. Slovak TA3 television reported that Bratislava expects supplies to resume in the morning hours of Thursday 23 April. Ukrainian specialists have officially completed repairs to the pipeline infrastructure, and President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed on the X network that the system is ready to resume operations.

„Although no one can currently guarantee that the Russian strikes on the pipeline infrastructure will not be repeated, our specialists have secured the basic conditions for the resumption of the pipeline system and equipment,“ napsal Zelenský.

A senior Ukrainian official told AFP that Kiev will resume pumping as soon as Slovakia or Hungary formally requests it - and that the Slovaks' request „likely to submit quickly“.

The renewal of Druzhba is a direct energy security issue for Slovakia. Bratislava's Slovnaft refinery, part of the Hungarian MOL group, processes exclusively Russian crude oil, and following a supply disruption in February, Bratislava had to declare an oil emergency and release state emergency stocks. The Croatian alternative via the Adria pipeline has proved much more expensive - according to the Slovak prime minister Roberta Fica transit fees are up to five times higher than via Druzhba.

The resumption of the pipeline also has a direct impact on European diplomacy. Hungary's outgoing Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has blocked from the start an EU loan to Ukraine of 90 billion euros (about 2.2 trillion crowns) and the approval of a 20th package of anti-Russian sanctions - precisely as leverage in the dispute over the disrupted supplies.

Slovakia has joined the blocking of sanctions. Now, following Zelensky's announcement of the correction, both countries have confirmed at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg that they will withdraw their veto.

Head of EU diplomacy Kaja Kallasová therefore said after the meeting that it expected confirmation of the loan to Kiev „within 24 hours“. Czech foreign minister Petr Macinka, who covered the events in Luxembourg, described the result as a breakthrough.

The diplomatic knot also involves the internal political situation in Hungary. The parliamentary elections were won by the opposition Tisza party of the future prime minister Pétera Magyara, which has long called on Kiev to restore the pipeline as soon as possible. Magyar stressed that the energy issue must not be the subject of political blackmail from any side. With the arrival of the new Hungarian government, the overall tone of Budapest's relations with Kiev and Brussels is changing.

gnews.cz - GH