Hungary's Orbán and Slovakia's Fico push for Druzhba panel, seek entry to oil pipeline
Photo: Viktor Orbán and Robert Fico (Getty Images)
Hungary and Slovakia want to inspect the condition of the Druzhba oil pipeline through a so-called commission. The Prime Ministers of both countries, Viktor Orbán and Robert Fico, are demanding that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy grant them access to the facility, the Hungarian Prime Minister says in a video message on his Facebook page.
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What Orbán says
On Friday, February 27, Orbán spoke on the phone with his Slovak counterpart, Robert Fico.
Kyiv claims that it is impossible to resume the operation of the oil pipeline due to technical problems. According to him, Hungary and Slovakia disagree with this.
"This is not true, there are no technical obstacles, the pipeline was closed solely for political reasons," Orban says.
In this regard, Hungary and Slovakia want to create a so-called investigative commission and are demanding that Zelenskyy grant them access to the facility.
The task of this commission, according to him, is to verify the reality of the situation claimed by Ukraine.
Orbán says that the closure of Druzhba threatens the energy security of both countries.
Druzhba oil pipeline has not been operational
Since the end of January 2026, oil shipments through the Druzhba pipeline across Ukraine have been suspended. Hungary and Slovakia received most of their oil supplies through this pipeline.
Budapest claims that Ukraine is deliberately blocking Druzhba for political reasons. At the same time, the Ukrainian side explains that the suspension of transit was a result of Russian attacks on infrastructure.
As a result, Hungary has blocked the allocation of a €90 billion loan from the EU to Ukraine until the oil pipeline resumes operation. Slovakia has also stated that it will not provide Ukraine with emergency electricity supplies until Druzhba is operational.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that repairing the pipeline could be too costly, as the Russians had already launched repeated attacks on repair crews.
The Ukrainian leader suggested that Orbán negotiate an energy truce with Putin.
