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 in this month’s elections by pro-European Union candidate Peter Magyar, who already promised to revoke that veto.
But Ukraine will not need to wait until the new parliament takes power in May for their support package to be approved, as the prime minister agreed to “no longer stand in the way of approving the loan” once oil deliveries are restored.
Orban made good on this promise and withdrew his nation’s veto on the EU loan on Wednesday, with Zelensky subsequently celebrating the pending approval “as well as a new sanctions package against Russia over this war.”
The Ukrainian president called the mutually beneficial actions “the right signal under the current circumstances” amid the ongoing Russian invasion.
The European Union is now expecting to finalize the loan process during a meeting of its 27 member states on Thursday in Cyprus.
EUROPEAN COURT OF JUSTICE DECLARES HUNGARY CANNOT BAN ‘PROMOTION OF HOMOSEXUALITY’ AMONG MINORS
Russia is determined not to let the resumption of oil flow work against its interests, announcing on Wednesday that it will halt oil exports carried from Kazakhstan to Germany via the Druzhba pipeline beginning on May 1.
Russian oil imported via the pipeline supplies the PCK refinery responsible for energy in the capital city of Berlin and the surrounding area. The cutoff against the PCK refinery will further eat into the energy shortage gripping Europe, though oil will still be acquired via ports.
Moscow has offered “technical” considerations as a fig leaf justification for the change, without further clarification.
