BRUSSELS, March 17 (Reuters) - Ukraine accepted the European Union’s offer of technical support and funding to restore oil flows through the damaged Druzhba pipeline on Tuesday but also signalled any resumption of Russian crude deliveries to Hungary and Slovakia was still weeks away.
In a letter to the EU released on Tuesday, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said repair work on the pipeline was nearing completion and that the pumping station was expected to be restored in 1-1/2 months, “in the absence of any further attacks by Russia.”
Hungary and Slovakia have been cut off from Russian oil deliveries via the Druzhba since late January after Kyiv said a Russian strike hit pipeline equipment in western Ukraine and would require time for repairs.
The Hungarian and Slovak governments - both of which have kept up political and energy ties with Russia despite its invasion of Ukraine in 2022 - accuse Ukraine of delaying the resumption of oil flows. Kyiv denies this.
Ukraine’s acceptance of support to renew Druzhba drew a tepid response on Tuesday, with Hungary’s foreign minister calling it a “political game”.
‘NO OIL, NO MONEY’
The dispute over the outage has led Hungary to continue blocking a 90-billion-euro ($103 billion) loan from the EU for Ukraine and new sanctions on Russia as long as flows via the Druzhba remain suspended.
With an EU leaders summit later this week, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, facing his most difficult election challenge next month after 16 years in power, said on Facebook that “if there is no oil, there is no money.”
Ukraine has denied it is holding up oil flows.
“Allegations that Ukraine is deliberately obstructing oil transportation through the Druzhba pipeline are unfounded,” Zelenskiy said in a letter to EU Council President Antonio Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
In a letter to Zelenskiy, both EU leaders said the resumption of oil flows through Ukraine was of great importance to preserve market stability and would be in line with Ukraine’s contractual obligations.
They also reiterated their commitment to the earlier announced phase-out of all remaining oil imports from Russia by the end of 2027 - which Hungary and Slovakia oppose but cannot block.
(Reporting by Bart Meijer in Brussels, Krisztina Than in Budapest and Jason Hovet in Prague; Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Tomasz Janowski)
