Russian oil has stopped coming through the Druzhba pipeline since the end of January. Now Hungary and Slovakia are having problems with supply.
Feb 17, 2026, 5:38 p.mFeb 17, 2026, 5:43 p.m
After Russian oil shipments through Ukraine were stopped, Hungary and Slovakia have asked Croatia for support. Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó called on the government in Zagreb on Monday to enable transport via the Adriatic pipeline.
Viktor Orbán (l.) and Robert Fico (r.): The prime ministers of Hungary and Slovakia are accusing Ukraine.Image: keystone
Croatian Economy Minister Ante Susnjar signaled a willingness to help as long as it was in line with EU and US regulations. At the same time, the Hungarian energy company MOL applied to the government in Budapest to release strategic oil reserves. If deliveries from the East do not start again in the coming days, around 250,000 tons of crude oil would first have to be released, the company said.
Hungary and Slovakia continue to support Putin
Deliveries via the Druzhba pipeline have been interrupted since January 27th. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico accused Ukraine on Sunday of deliberately delaying the resumption of exports. Kiev wants to put pressure on Hungary to give up its resistance to Ukraine’s future accession to the EU. There is conflicting information about the cause of the delivery stop.
The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry last week blamed a Russian attack on pipeline infrastructure. Foreign Minister Andrij Sybiha published a photo of fire-fighting operations on the short message service X and accused Hungary of keeping quiet about the incident for two weeks in order to protect Russia. Hungary rejected this and, in turn, accused the Ukrainian side of cutting off the power supply to the affected pipeline section.
We know that the Hungarian side is preparing to complain again about problems with Russian oil transit through the Druzhba pipeline.
We can only advise them to approach their “friends” in Moscow with these photos. This is the Druzhba pipeline infrastructure burning after the… pic.twitter.com/Xbn3DGCRkl
— Andrii Sybiha (@andrii_sybiha) February 12, 2026
Hungary and Slovakia play a special role within the European Union. Both countries benefit from exemptions from EU sanctions against Russian pipeline oil and rely heavily on these imports. In contrast to most other EU states, the governments in Budapest and Bratislava continue to maintain close relations with Moscow. They have so far successfully resisted attempts from Brussels to completely stop energy imports from Russia, which the Kremlin uses to finance its war against Ukraine.
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