Russian crude began reaching Slovakia again in the early hours of Thursday through the Druzhba pipeline, ending an interruption that had lasted since late January and reopening a politically sensitive supply route linking Russia, Ukraine, Slovakia and Hungary.
Russian oil has resumed flowing to Slovakia through the Druzhba pipeline, restoring supplies after an outage of almost three months and easing immediate pressure on one of central Europe’s remaining routes for Russian crude. Slovakia’s Economy Ministry said oil began arriving again at 2.00 a.m. local time on Thursday 23 April.
Economy Minister Denisa Saková said the intake of oil was proceeding in line with the agreed schedule. A ministry statement issued on Wednesday had said the restart of deliveries was close after information was received from the Ukrainian side on the timetable for pumping during April.
The interruption began on 27 January, when the southern branch of Druzhba running across Ukrainian territory was damaged during the war. According to Reuters reporting, Ukraine said the suspension was necessary because the line had been hit by a Russian strike and needed repairs before transit could resume safely.
The resumption matters for more than Slovakia’s immediate supply balance. The Druzhba restart also removed one of the obstacles in a wider EU dispute over financial support for Ukraine. Once oil transit restarted, Hungary dropped its veto on a €90 billion EU loan package intended to support Kyiv through 2026 and 2027.
EU Finally Approves €90bn Loan for Ukraine as pipeline is turned on
That sequence again showed how a Soviet-era oil pipeline has become entangled in wartime diplomacy, EU finance and regional energy dependence. Although the European Union has tried to cut its reliance on Russian fossil fuels since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Slovakia and Hungary remain among the member states still dependent on Russian crude delivered through Druzhba.
During the stoppage, the issue became politically charged in Bratislava and Budapest. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico had questioned whether the halt was purely technical and suggested that Ukraine may have been using the route for political leverage. Kyiv, however, maintained that the line had suffered war-related damage and that repairs were required before crude could flow again.
The dispute also exposed the limits of Slovakia’s and Hungary’s room for manoeuvre. Both countries have argued that their refinery systems are not easily switched away from Russian blends, while Brussels has continued pushing a longer-term reduction in Russian energy imports. The Reuters account described the pipeline as a politically sensitive channel precisely because it remains one of the few significant routes by which Russian oil still reaches parts of the EU.
For Slovakia, Thursday’s restart offers short-term relief, but not necessarily long-term certainty. Cross-border infrastructure remains vulnerable to further disruption as the war continues, and the region’s energy map is still being reshaped by sanctions, political bargaining and physical damage to transport routes. At the same time, the broader European picture remains unsettled: on the same day that Druzhba flows resumed southwards, Germany confirmed that Russian transit of Kazakh oil to the PCK Schwedt refinery would cease from 1 May, underlining how unstable pipeline arrangements across Europe have become.
Saková said the renewed deliveries should help stabilise the situation and end speculation about whether the route could still operate. In practical terms, the immediate fact is straightforward: after nearly three months without supplies, Russian crude is once again entering Slovakia through Druzhba. In political terms, however, the restart changes little about the larger reality that central Europe’s residual dependence on Russian energy continues to carry strategic consequences well beyond the oil market itself.
