On Wednesday, March 18, a group of experts from the European Union will visit the section of the Druzhba oil pipeline in Ukraine, which, according to Kyiv, was damaged by a Russian missile. the Ukrainian portal Evropejska Pravda reported on Tuesday, citing its sources. The experts are to assess the extent of the damage and the work required to restore the operation of the pipeline, through which Russian oil has not flowed to Slovakia and Hungary since the end of January. According to the portal, representatives of these two countries are missing from the group. TASR informs about it.
According to one of the quoted sources, the group of experts, which consists of several engineers, is already in Kyiv. The portal added that the plans and logistics of experts are provided by the EU delegation in Ukraine. Another representative from the EU stated that there are no representatives from Slovakia or Hungary among the experts.
President of the European Council Antonio Costa and the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen in a joint letter to the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky they stated that Ukraine accepted the EU’s offer of technical assistance and financing for the restoration of oil supplies through Druzhba. According to the leaders and Kyiv, Russian attacks on the oil pipeline facility in the city of Brody in the Lviv region on January 27 led to the interruption of supplies.
However, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico accuse Ukraine of delaying the restoration of operations and of political blackmail. At the beginning of March, the Slovak Information Service issued a statement that according to satellite images, there was no damage to the oil pipeline on January 27. However, Ukraine says it is working to repair the damaged infrastructure.
Von der Leyenová and Costa also published a letter from Zelensky for the opinion, which stated in it that the repairs on the Druzhba pipeline are coming to an end and that the damaged gas station will be restored within 1.5 months.
The heads of the European Council and the European Commission also emphasized that their priority is to ensure energy security for all European citizens. In this context, they want to “continue to cooperate with interested parties in the search for alternative routes for the transit of non-Russian oil to the countries of Central and Eastern Europe”, they declared.
