Ukraine Targets Druzhba Pipeline to Cut Russian Oil and Influence in the EU

For many Ukrainians and Europeans, the EU's disbursement of a 90 billion euro ($105 billion) loan to Ukraine on April 23 was a bittersweet victory, as it came with a multibillion-dollar gift to Russia.

EU member Hungary agreed to lift its veto on the loan after Ukraine repaired the Druzhba pipeline, which crosses its territory and supplies Russian oil to Hungary.

Ukraine needs the money to fight for another two years, but landlocked Hungary and Slovakia say they depend on the Druzhba pipeline as their sole source of crude oil.

Last year, they received 9.25 million tonnes via the pipeline, worth more than $4 billion. This is far less than the roughly $50 billion the EU paid Russia for crude oil in 2021, before Russia invaded Ukraine, but Ukraine argues that even this sum is directly converted into bombs, shells, and Ukrainian lives.

"For us to get some money to survive, the aggressor killing us also needs to get some money. It seems like a deal we can't win," said Inna Sovsun, a Ukrainian lawmaker on the energy committee.

"It's completely, let's say, odd, but I think the stronger word would be immoral," she told Al Jazeera.

Backbone of Central Europe's supply

Beyond Hungary and Slovakia, the EU appears to agree with Sovsun.

The EU banned Russian crude oil and refined oil products transported by sea from January and March 2023, respectively, with an exemption for pipeline oil "until the Council (of EU leaders) decides otherwise."

Other EU member states on the Druzhba pipeline – Austria, the Czech Republic, Germany, and Poland – have all weaned themselves off this oil, although they also could have taken advantage of the exemption. But three of them are coastal states with oil terminals, and Austria has been supplied via the Transalpine pipeline from Italy and other pipelines built to supply Western Europe during the Cold War.

"Druzhba used to be the backbone of Central Europe's supply," said John Roberts, senior partner at Methinks, an energy consultancy, to Al Jazeera. "Losing Druzhba for most of Western Europe was a major inconvenience, but not a catastrophe… That is not true for Central Europe."

Hungary could be supplied via the Adria pipeline starting in Croatia, but the two countries are in a legal battle for control. It is also not practical for Hungary and Slovakia to shut down their refineries and import products from neighbors, energy experts say.

"Importing refined products on a regular basis is very expensive, and shutting down refineries in Hungary and Slovakia means they lose their entire economy and a range of petroleum products such as naphtha for fertilizers, asphalt, plastics, etc.," said Costis Stambolis, executive director of the Institute of Energy for Southeast Europe.

Geopolitical struggle

When oil began flowing again to Slovakia on April 23, Prime Minister Robert Fico said: "The Druzhba pipeline and oil have been used as tools in a geopolitical struggle."

Oil had stopped flowing from January 27, when Ukraine said a pumping station on the Druzhba pipeline was hit by a missile in a Russian airstrike. The location was too dangerous for repair crews to risk fixing the damage, Kyiv said.

Fico and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban were skeptical of Ukraine's explanation for the damage. Orban wrote to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on March 3, urging her to enforce Ukraine's obligation to allow oil to flow.

The Commission immediately increased pressure on Kyiv to let inspectors see the extent of the damage. A Hungarian team arrived in Kyiv on March 14 but was not allowed to visit the site. A European team arrived three days later. They were also prevented.

By then, Orban had reversed his approval of the loan in December, creating a battle of wills with Kyiv.

Ukraine appeared to bide its time until a Hungarian presidential election removed Orban on April 12, and then repaired the pipeline.

Asked whether the entire standoff was staged to remove Orban, Sovsun said: "I don't think there's anything we wouldn't do to stop the killing of Ukrainians."

No sympathy

Sovsun believes Budapest taught Kyiv about blackmail in 2016, when the two countries began negotiations over the language rights of the Hungarian minority in western Ukraine.

Kyiv conceded on bilingual education, but Sovsun said: "Hungary's stance was that all teaching up to secondary school must be in Hungarian."

"They were never satisfied," she said. "It was clear they were just coming up with new excuses and new ways to block Ukraine's EU integration process. They have no moral right to claim that others are blackmailing them after they have blackmailed Ukraine for over 10 years," she said.

In June 2025, Hungary officially blocked Ukraine's accession talks. As if to reinforce its decision, Orban held a referendum on Ukraine's EU membership, where 95% voted against. The opposition said the results were staged.

Hungary has been considered the black sheep of the EU since at least 2018, when the European Parliament moved to strip it of voting rights in the Council of EU leaders. By an overwhelming majority, the European Parliament found in 2022 that Orban's restrictions on free information and democratic processes meant Hungary was a "hybrid regime of electoral autocracy," and "respect for democratic norms and standards is absent."

When Hungary assumed the EU's rotating presidency in 2024, both the EU and NATO dismissed Orban's shuttle diplomacy to Moscow and Beijing as a private adventure not representing them. Many EU member states sent non-ministerial staff to Hungarian Council meetings.

Under Fico, Slovakia played a secondary role in obstructing Ukraine's relations with the EU.

When Fico visited Russian President Vladimir Putin in December 2023, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused him of reaching a "secret deal with Putin" designed "for personal gain."

Fico called Zelenskyy "an enemy of Slovakia" the following month for opposing Russian gas supplies through Ukraine, and offered that Slovakia buy gas from Azerbaijan instead.

In an apparent imitation of Orban, Fico flew to Moscow for Russia's May 9 Victory Day parade last year, marking the end of World War II – the only EU leader to do so.

Russian state media praised him for resisting "blatant and frenzied pressure" to stay home.

Fico later told his parliament that neutrality from NATO "would greatly benefit Slovakia," and said he was "extremely interested in normalizing relations" with Moscow.

Fico joined Orban in vetoing Ukraine's EU talks in June 2025 and blocked the 18th sanctions package against Russia.

Zelenskyy and Fico then, puzzlingly, mended their ties at Ukraine's town of Uzhgorod last September, while inaugurating a newly built European-gauge railway section across their border.

Fico said he would support Ukraine joining the EU, without explaining what led to the change, leaving Hungary as the sole opponent.

Sabotage inside Russia

All this behavior from Hungary and Slovakia convinced Ukraine that the two EU members were acting in collusion with Moscow, and that energy was just their latest excuse to hold Ukraine's loan and EU membership hostage.

Many Europeans agree and do not blame Kyiv for its reluctance to repair the Druzhba pipeline.

"The whole idea of telling Ukraine, 'Now fix the hole that the Russians made so we can persuade Orban to lift his veto on the 90 billion,' is extraordinary," said Catherine Fieschi, a scholar of European politics at Carnegie Europe, a think tank. "Europeans have been so bad on some of these issues that Ukraine is right to kick us in the ass," she told Al Jazeera.

Ukraine now appears to be doing exactly that: shutting down Druzhba permanently by attacking its pumping stations deep inside Russia, and presenting Europe and Russia with force majeure.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) set fire to the Kaleykino oil pumping station in the Republic of Tatarstan, a thousand kilometers (621 miles) from Ukraine, on February 23. The station supplies West Siberian oil into the Druzhba pipeline.

On April 21, the SBU attacked the Transneft-Privolga pumping station in Samara, damaging five tanks holding 20,000 tonnes of crude oil supplying Druzhba.

The attacks on Druzhba infrastructure have had an impact beyond exports to Hungary and Slovakia.

Reuters estimated last month that they contributed to Russia losing 40% of its total export capacity, and the disruption of flows through the Druzhba pipeline forced Russia to cut oil production by half a million barrels per day compared to late 2025.

Peter Magyar, Hungary's incoming prime minister, has said he will hold another referendum on Ukraine's accession. Not everyone is sure it will lead to a yes vote, or that other EU members will vote yes.

"Hungarians are great to hide behind," Fieschi said.

"Things are going to get much tougher on the accession front. And this time, France will have to say what it really wants, as will Germany, as will the Netherlands," she said. "There's going to be a very uncomfortable moment of clarification. And I think we're about to walk into it."