Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on 24 February that he sees no point in repairing the Druzhba oil pipeline because Russia repeatedly destroys it and attacks the repair crews who approach the site.
Speaking at a press conference in Kyiv alongside European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa, Zelenskyy told Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to negotiate an “energy ceasefire” with Vladimir Putin instead.
European Parliament President Roberta Metsola signed the loan into law, and von der Leyen said the Commission would deliver the money “one way or the other.”
The statement puts Zelenskyy at odds not only with Budapest but also with Brussels. At the same press conference, von der Leyen called on Ukraine to accelerate repairs on the pipeline, damaged in a 27 January Russian strike at Brody, Lviv Oblast.
Orbán has blocked a €90 billion EU loan and the 20th sanctions package against Russia over the disruption. But the EU is moving without him: European Parliament President Roberta Metsola signed the loan into law on the same day, and von der Leyen said the Commission would deliver the money “one way or the other.”
The Commission is targeting the first tranche before Easter, with drones, missiles, and ammunition as the priority.
“What’s the point? Just to lose people?”
“It cannot be that Russia destroys something and Ukraine rebuilds it—not just once, but again and again,” Zelenskyy told reporters. “As soon as a repair crew approaches the pipeline, they repeat the attack simply to kill people. What’s the point of rebuilding then? Just to lose people? I think that’s too high a price.”
“If Hungary wants to block financial support, let it block it for Russia—because the cause of the damage is not Ukraine.”
He proposed that Orbán take the issue directly to Moscow: “Let the Hungarian prime minister talk to Russia and propose an energy ceasefire.” Zelenskyy said Russia has destroyed Druzhba infrastructure “several times”.
Ukraine has also hit the Russian section of the pipeline—several times. Both sides are dismantling the same pipeline from opposite ends while Orbán demands Kyiv rebuild its portion.
Zelenskyy also challenged the logic of linking the pipeline to the loan: “If Hungary wants to block financial support, let it block it for Russia—because the cause of the damage is not Ukraine.”
Hungary denies the strike, EU prepares to bypass
Hours earlier, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó flatly denied that Russia had struck the pipeline at all. “The Druzhba pipeline has not suffered a single Russian hit,” he told LIGA.net at the EU Foreign Affairs Council, calling the disruption “pure political blackmail by Ukraine.”
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“I am not in a position to support any decision whatsoever favourable to Ukraine until they return to normality.”
He added that no sanctions package would pass “while Ukraine plays with our energy supply.” When a journalist asked why Hungary doesn’t want Ukraine to win the war, Szijjártó waved the question away.
Orbán, in a letter to Costa published on 24 February, went further: “I am not in a position to support any decision whatsoever favourable to Ukraine until they return to normality.”
A pipeline with an expiration date
On 24 February, Reuters reported that the European Commission will submit legislation on 15 April—three days after Hungary’s parliamentary election—to ban all Russian oil imports permanently by the end of 2027. The law would use qualified majority voting, meaning neither Hungary nor Slovakia could block it.
The pipeline Orbán is holding €90 billion hostage over is being destroyed from both ends.
The pipeline’s physical viability is collapsing in parallel. On 23 February, SBU drones struck the Kaleikino oil pumping station in Tatarstan—a key Druzhba feeder hub over 1,200 km from the Ukrainian border. Transneft, Russia’s pipeline monopoly, cut crude oil intake by 250,000 barrels per day as a result.
The pipeline Orbán is holding €90 billion hostage over is being destroyed from both ends. And in seven weeks, the EU plans to ban the oil that flows through it.
