President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that pressure on Ukraine to restore the Druzhba oil pipeline for the transit of Russian crude is, in practical terms, pressure to soften sanctions on Moscow.
His remarks mark a further escalation in a dispute that has moved well beyond infrastructure repairs and now sits at the intersection of EU sanctions policy, financial assistance to Ukraine and the energy security concerns of Hungary and Slovakia.
Speaking to journalists, Zelenskyy argued that the issue cannot be reduced to a technical question about repairing damaged pipeline infrastructure. In his view, the real question is whether Europe is prepared to facilitate the continued sale of Russian oil while the war continues. He said he was being pushed to agree to the restoration of Druzhba, and asked how that differed from lifting sanctions on Russia. He also indicated that some leaders were trying to bypass that broader political question, which he described as the wrong approach.
The immediate background is the disruption of oil flows through the Ukrainian section of the Druzhba system. Russian oil deliveries to Hungary and Slovakia have been suspended since late January after damage to the pipeline, which reporting has linked to Russian strikes. Zelenskyy said earlier this month that restoring the technical capability of the line could take around one and a half to two months. He also noted that rebuilding associated storage facilities would take longer.
What has changed in recent days is the political context surrounding the outage. According to the Financial Times, Hungary and Slovakia have linked the issue of Druzhba’s restoration to a proposed €90 billion EU loan package for Ukraine. Zelenskyy has described that approach as blackmail, reflecting Kyiv’s view that the pipeline dispute is being used as leverage at a time when Ukraine remains heavily dependent on Western financial support to sustain its civilian budget during the war.
For Budapest and Bratislava, however, the pipeline remains a live economic issue. Both countries continue to rely on Russian crude delivered through the southern branch of Druzhba under exemptions maintained within the EU sanctions framework. Hungary sent a fact-finding mission to Ukraine to assess the condition of the damaged route, while Slovakia also pressed for the resumption of transit. Kyiv responded by saying it did not recognise the Hungarian delegation as an official mission, stating that those involved had entered Ukraine as tourists.
The wider disagreement reflects deeper tensions inside the European Union over sanctions on Russian energy. EU has renewed sanctions on individuals and entities linked to Russia’s war until 15 September 2026, despite objections from Hungary and Slovakia. Those objections formed part of a broader effort by both governments to resist tougher pressure on Moscow while seeking relief from the economic consequences of the current energy regime.
Hungary in particular has made the matter explicit. On 9 March, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán called on the EU to suspend sanctions on Russian energy, arguing that high prices were damaging the Hungarian economy. Budapest simultaneously introduced a fuel price cap and released fuel reserves as concerns over supply intensified. The continuing Druzhba outage has added to that pressure, especially as global oil prices have also been affected by wider instability in the Middle East.
There is also an alternative supply issue in the background. With Druzhba offline, Central European refiners have had to rely more heavily on other routes. Hungary’s MOL complained to the European Union about Croatian pipeline fees, underlining the extent to which the interruption of Russian flows is producing secondary disputes within the bloc’s energy market. While not central to Zelenskyy’s remarks, this reinforces the practical reason Hungary and Slovakia are pressing for Druzhba to return to service.
Zelenskyy’s intervention is therefore significant because it reframes the dispute in directly political terms. For Kyiv, restoring Druzhba is not a neutral act of repair. It would mean reactivating a channel through which Russian oil reaches EU markets, even if under existing exemptions, and would therefore weaken the logic of the sanctions regime intended to constrain Moscow’s revenues. That argument fits with Zelenskyy’s broader recent warnings that Russia is actively seeking relief from energy sanctions and that any loosening of restrictions would give the Kremlin additional financial space.
The outcome remains uncertain. French President Emmanuel Macron has reportedly tried to separate the pipeline question from the EU loan package, saying both issues should be resolved but treated independently. That suggests at least some European leaders are seeking a compromise that avoids collapsing financial support for Ukraine while still addressing the concerns of Hungary and Slovakia. Yet Zelenskyy’s latest comments make clear that Kyiv does not accept the premise that Druzhba can simply be reopened as a technical matter. In Ukraine’s view, any such move would carry wider consequences for sanctions policy, EU credibility and Russia’s continuing ability to profit from oil exports during wartime.
