Kiev had suspended deliveries of Russian crude since January, causing a rift with EU members Hungary and Slovakia
Ukraine has restarted the flow of Russian oil to the EU via the Druzhba pipeline after a pause of almost three months, Hungarian energy giant MOL has said.
The company said in a statement that Ukrainian operator JSC Ukrtransnafta has informed it that Ukraine began receiving crude from Belarus via the Druzhba pipeline system at noon on Wednesday.
According to MOL, it expects the first shipments of Russian oil to arrive in Hungary and Slovakia on Thursday “at the latest.”
Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky said on social media on Tuesday that repairs on the pipeline had been completed and that it was ready to resume operations.
Kiev halted supplies to Hungary and Slovakia in late January, claiming that the infrastructure had been damaged by Russian strikes. Moscow rejected the accusations as “lies.”
The move to resume supplies by Ukraine comes less than two weeks after a parliamentary election in Hungary, in which the pro-EU Tisza party led by Peter Magyar defeated the ruling Fidesz party of longtime Prime Minister Viktor Orban – a harsh critic of EU aid to Ukraine.
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