{"id":28893,"date":"2026-04-16T01:06:29","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T01:06:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/28893\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T01:06:29","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T01:06:29","slug":"kyiv-blocks-top-eu-leaders-from-visiting-druzhba-pipeline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/28893\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyiv Blocks Top EU Leaders from Visiting Druzhba Pipeline"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\tKyiv Blocks Top EU Leaders from Visiting Druzhba Pipeline &#8211; Hungarian Conservative<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n&#13;<\/p>\n<p>   &#13;<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"skip-link screen-reader-text\" href=\"#content\">Skip to content<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tUkraine reportedly denied EU leaders access to the Druzhba pipeline during their Kyiv visit, according to diplomats cited by the Financial Times, deepening an already fraught dispute over halted oil transit that has become central to Hungary\u2019s election campaign.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap has-medium-font-size\">Ukraine denied European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Ant\u00f3nio Costa access to the Druzhba pipeline during their visit to Kyiv on 24 February, according to EU diplomats cited by Financial Times.<\/p>\n<p>The recently published article states that von der Leyen and Costa specifically asked Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to allow them to visit the pipeline in order to independently assess the damage allegedly caused by a Russian strike on 27 January. However, according to five EU diplomats, their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ft.com\/content\/8f5f18fb-311d-4df0-805c-063b292506b3\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">request was denied<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>According to the report, Ukraine is currently under pressure from several pro-Ukraine EU governments and from the European Commission to permit such a visit in order to demonstrate that Kyiv is genuinely working to restore oil flows\u2014despite Zelenskyy admitting on Monday that Ukraine <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hungarianconservative.com\/articles\/current\/zelenskyy-druzhba-transit-ukraine-hungary-orban\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">does not intend<\/a> to resume transit.<\/p>\n<p>Hungary and Slovakia, which import a significant share of their energy needs through Druzhba, maintain that the pipeline remains fully operational, accusing Ukraine of deliberately halting supplies, primarily to create instability just weeks before Hungary\u2019s parliamentary election. On Monday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orb\u00e1n <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hungarianconservative.com\/articles\/current\/orban-zelenskyy-druzhba-oil-pipeline-restart\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">presented satellite imagery<\/a> that he said confirms the pipeline is operational and once again called on Zelenskyy to resume transit.<\/p>\n<p>In response to Ukraine\u2019s blockade, Orb\u00e1n announced that he would block the EUR 90 billion military loan to Kyiv until supplies are restored, while both countries halted diesel exports to Ukraine. Budapest also blocked the 20th sanctions package against Russia, and Slovakia suspended electricity exports to Kyiv.<\/p>\n<p>One EU diplomat speaking to Financial Times said Kyiv \u2018had scored an own goal\u2019 by giving Hungary an excuse to block the loan. \u2018We cannot say if there is damage or not. There are very easy ways to document it and show they are working hard to repair it. They haven\u2019t done it,\u2019 the diplomat said.<\/p>\n<p>A senior Ukrainian official close to Zelenskyy rejected suggestions that Kyiv was deliberately delaying repairs, stating that technicians from Ukraine\u2019s state energy company Naftogaz had provided European counterparts with evidence that Druzhba had been severely damaged.<\/p>\n<p>Chief Executive of Naftogaz Sergii Koretskyi told the FT that the Russian strike caused a storage tank holding 75,000 cubic metres of oil to catch fire, \u2018which took 10 days to extinguish.\u2019 Given the scale of the damage, he said, \u2018a full assessment takes time and is expected soon.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>However, speaking to the FT on Monday, Zelenskyy reiterated his position, stating that he was not \u2018inclined to ease the situation for his Hungarian counterpart,\u2019 effectively doubling down on his intention not to resume oil transit. On Tuesday, Orb\u00e1n sent an open letter to Ursula von der Leyen urging the Commission to enforce the EU\u2013Ukraine Association Agreement, which obliges Ukraine to allow oil shipments to Hungary.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-medium-font-size\">Related articles:<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\tUkraine reportedly denied EU leaders access to the Druzhba pipeline during their Kyiv visit, according to diplomats cited by the Financial Times, deepening an already fraught dispute over halted oil transit that has become central to Hungary\u2019s election campaign.\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tJoakim Scheffer graduated from the University of Szeged with a Master\u2019s degree in International Relations. Before joining Hungarian Conservative, he worked as an editor at the foreign policy desk of Hungarian daily Magyar Nemzet and serves as the editor of Eurasia magazine.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n<p>        &#13;<\/p>\n<p>&#13;<br \/>\n\t\t&#13;<\/p>\n<p>We use cookies to enhance your browsing experience and to personalize the content and advertisements that you see on our website. AcceptDeclinePrivacy policy<\/p>\n<p>\t\t&#13;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kyiv Blocks Top EU Leaders from Visiting Druzhba Pipeline &#8211; Hungarian Conservative &#13; &#13; &#13; &#13; &#13; Skip&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28894,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[138],"tags":[428,19501,3206,939,19502,19503,13227,8267,5895,330,403,350,325,347],"class_list":{"0":"post-28893","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-antonio-costa","8":"tag-antonio-costa","9":"tag-druzhba","10":"tag-election-2026","11":"tag-european-union","12":"tag-financial-times","13":"tag-independent-investigation","14":"tag-oil-transit","15":"tag-russo-ukrainian-war","16":"tag-slovakia","17":"tag-ukraine","18":"tag-ursula-von-der-leyen","19":"tag-viktor-orban","20":"tag-volodymyr-zelenskyy","21":"tag-war-in-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116411707043778944","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28893","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28893"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28893\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28893"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28893"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28893"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}