Slovakia and Hungary have expressed their concern over media reports about sending experts from the European Commission to the site of alleged damage to the Druzhba oil pipeline in Ukraine, without the presence of Slovak and Hungarian experts and without notifying any of the countries. This was stated by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Slovakia and Hungary, Juraj Blanár and Péter Szijjártó, in a letter addressed to the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
At the same time, they called on the Union to immediately put pressure on the Ukrainian side in order to resolve the situation regarding Druzhba. TASR was informed about this on Wednesday evening by the Communications Department of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs (MFA) of the Slovak Republic. Ukrainian media reported on Tuesday that a group of EU experts will visit a section of the Druzhba pipeline on Wednesday, March 18, which Kiev says was damaged by a Russian attack in the city of Brody in the Lviv region on January 27.
Since then, Russian oil has not flowed through the pipeline to Slovakia and Hungary. The spokesman of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Heorhiy Tychy, said on Wednesday that Ukraine does not yet have any information about this EU mission, which, according to the media, should not have included representatives from Slovakia or Hungary. Blanár and Szijjártó stated in von der Leyen’s letter that they consider the said visit by experts to be an insufficient step, and emphasized that Slovakia and Hungary insist on an expert mission to the Družba pipeline with the involvement of their experts.
“Today is 50 days since, according to Ukraine, the oil pipeline itself was allegedly disabled. And despite the fact that from the beginning we have requested that experts from Slovakia and Hungary have access to inspect this place, the Ukrainian side still did not allow us to the pipeline, which we consider absolutely unacceptable,” said Blanár, according to the statement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. According to him, the non-involvement of Slovak and Hungarian experts “raises questions about the credibility and objectivity of any conclusions”.
Slovak and Hungarian diplomacy at the same time according to the letter expressed “disappointment at the reluctance and inability of EU institutions to consistently promote the interests of EU member states vis-à-vis Ukraine in resuming oil transit through the Druzhba pipelineat a time when the energy security of Central European countries is already facing unprecedented challenges due to the ongoing conflict in the Middle East”.
„We expected a much more active and vigorous approach from the Commission, therefore we ask the European institutions to create the necessary pressure on the Ukrainian side without any delay in the interest of a coordinated, transparent and quick solution to this acute situation,” the ministers said.
The President of the European Council António Costa and von der Leyen previously wrote in a joint letter to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that Ukraine accepted the EU’s offer of technical assistance and financing for the restoration of oil supplies through Druzhba. In his letter, Zelensky stated that the repairs on the Druzhba pipeline are coming to an end and the damaged gas station will be restored within 1.5 months.
