Kyiv and Budapest have buried two hatchets this week, swapping a restart of oil supplies for approval of critical wartime loans.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced Tuesday that the Druzhba pipeline — a transnational system that transits Russian oil to Hungary, Slovakia, Germany, and a slew of other European nations — has been repaired after months of delays following an attack by a Russian drone.
Hungarian oil group MOL confirmed in a Wednesday statement that they expect the “first crude oil shipments following the restart of the Ukrainian section of the pipeline system to arrive in Hungary and Slovakia by tomorrow at the latest.”
Outgoing Prime Minister Viktor Orban has long accused Ukraine of withholding oil transits as leverage against his government. In retaliation, he has for months blocked a $105 billion loan from the European Union to aid the Ukrainian war effort — promising “no oil, no money.”
Orban was defeated
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