The oil flow through the Druzhba should be restored and the pressure on strategic reserves will be eased. Hungarian Minister János Boka connects this step with Hungary’s veto of a loan for Ukraine.
Ukraine will resume the transit of oil from Russia to Hungary via the Druzhba pipeline on April 21 at noon, Hungarian Minister for European Affairs János Boka announced on Monday (April 20). TASR informs about it based on the report of the TASS agency.
“Today I was in Brussels where, among other things, I negotiated the resumption of the operation of the Druzhba pipeline. The most likely scenario is that the Ukrainian side will announce the resumption of the operation of the pipeline on Tuesday around noon,” Boka wrote on the social network. The MOL Group, which purchases Russian oil for its refineries in Hungary and Slovakia, has recently been using oil from Hungarian state strategic reserves. Deliveries via Druzhba have been stopped since January 21.
“If Hungary had not blocked the 90 billion EU loan for Ukraine, oil supplies through the Druzhba pipeline would never have been restored,” noted Boka. “The Hungarian strategy worked: the Ukrainians ran out of money before we ran out of oil,” added the minister.
