Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said Brussels wants Kyiv to say when the Druzhba pipeline can be brought back into operation, while dismissing a Hungarian visit to Ukraine said to be connected to the damaged oil route.
Speaking in Berlin on 11 March before meeting Bundestag President Julia Klöckner, the Ukrainian president said the heads of the EU institutions wanted a timetable for the possible resumption of oil transit through the Soviet-era pipeline, which still carries Russian crude towards Central Europe. He said the matter had been discussed with Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, and António Costa, president of the European Council.
According to Zelenskyy, Ukraine has agreed to provide a date for when supplies might technically be restored. He said Naftogaz was handling the issue and that earlier estimates suggested the line could be made operational again within roughly six to eight weeks. But he drew a distinction between restoring the technical ability to pump oil and rebuilding infrastructure destroyed in Russian strikes. That, he indicated, would take longer.
The dispute centres on Druzhba’s southern branch, which has been out of service since late January after damage in western Ukraine that Kyiv says was caused by a Russian attack. The interruption stopped Russian oil deliveries to Hungary and Slovakia, both of which still rely on pipeline imports under exemptions to the EU embargo. The outage has since become part of a wider quarrel between Budapest, Bratislava, Kyiv and Brussels over sanctions, energy and money.
That quarrel sharpened on Tuesday when Hungary said it had sent a fact-finding mission to Ukraine to inspect the pipeline and support a restart. Kyiv, however, refused to dignify the visit with official status. Zelenskyy said he did not know what the Hungarian delegation was doing in Ukraine and that the foreign ministry had described the trip as private. Reuters reported that Hungarian officials presented the mission as a formal effort to assess the damage, while Ukraine treated the visitors as having entered the country as tourists.
That gap in presentation is revealing. Budapest wants the issue cast as an urgent energy-security matter. Kyiv appears determined not to let Hungary set the terms. By refusing to recognise the visitors as an official delegation, Zelenskyy signalled that Ukraine may discuss repair dates with Brussels, but will not necessarily accept bilateral pressure from Viktor Orbán’s government. This fits a broader pattern in which Orbán has repeatedly used Ukraine-related disputes to exert leverage inside the EU.
The timing is not accidental. Hungary has already linked the Druzhba stoppage to its opposition to a proposed €90 billion EU loan for Ukraine and to a fresh sanctions package against Russia. On 5 March Orbán said Hungary would use “political and financial tools” to force Ukraine to reopen the route. EU Today has separately reported that Budapest made the resumption of oil transit a condition for dropping its objections to key EU decisions on Ukraine.
Yet Brussels’ position has been more careful than Budapest’s rhetoric suggests. The European Commission has looked at possible support for restoring flows through Druzhba, including potential financial assistance, but that is not the same as a formal declaration that macro-financial support for Kyiv depends on the return of Russian oil transit. The distinction matters. For the Commission, the issue is framed as one of technical recovery and regional supply stability. For Hungary, it has become a weapon in a larger political contest.
There is also an awkward contradiction at the heart of the row. Russia damaged infrastructure on Ukrainian territory, yet Ukraine is being pressed by some EU states to restore a route used to export Russian crude. That contradiction has not been lost in Kyiv. Zelenskyy’s wording suggested that, while Ukraine is prepared to provide a realistic technical timetable, it does not intend to pretend the matter is merely administrative. The line can perhaps be made usable again in weeks; rebuilding what Russian missiles destroyed is another matter altogether.
The broader political backdrop is familiar. Hungary has long sought to preserve access to Russian energy and has challenged the EU’s harder line on Moscow. Recent EU Today reporting has shown how the Druzhba stoppage fed a larger confrontation over Russian energy phase-out plans and over Hungary’s willingness to hold up collective decisions on Ukraine. In that sense, the pipeline is no longer just a pipe. It is another front in the argument over how far Europe is prepared to go, how quickly it wants to cut its remaining dependence on Russian supplies, and how much leverage Orbán still has inside the Union.
For now, Zelenskyy has made two things clear. Brussels wants a date. Hungary does not get to dictate it.
