Russian oil deliveries to Hungary resume – FM
Russian oil is once again flowing to Hungary through the “Druzhba” (Friendship) pipeline transiting Ukraine, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto confirmed on Wednesday, a day after Ukraine halted the deliveries. Kiev blamed the interruption on a large-scale Russian missile attack targeting Ukraine’s energy infrastructure.
“Technical specialists” managed to restore the pipeline’s operation, Szijjarto said in a video address published on social networks, adding that the pressure in the pipeline remains low as repair work continues. Earlier on Wednesday, Slovakian Prime Minister Eduard Heger said that the oil flow through the Druzhba pipeline was expected “to be resumed within hours or days.”
Ukraine stopped the transit through the pipeline supplying Russian oil to Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic on Tuesday. Kiev informed Russia’s Transneft that service was suspended due to a “drop in voltage,” the Russian oil giant said at that time. The move came in the wake of a Russian missile attack that the Ukrainian energy minister called the “most massive shelling” of the nation’s energy infrastructure.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban called an emergency meeting of the National Security Council over the pipeline shutdown, although both Hungary and Slovakia said that they had enough oil reserves to last through the supply halt while repair work was underway.
The EU banned Russian oil imports by sea back in June as part of its sanctions policy targeting Moscow over its ongoing military campaign in Ukraine. Hungary, Czechia, and Slovakia were exempted from the ban and allowed to continue buying Russian oil via the pipeline, however.
