The European Union is considering funding repairs to an oil pipeline Russia has struck nearly two dozen times, while Hungary holds €90 billion ($106 billion) in EU loans hostage until flows resume.
EU partners are pressing a country under Russian bombardment to restore Russian oil revenues.
On 5 March, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico added a new condition to a deepening standoff: he won’t meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy until the European Commission backs Bratislava’s pressure campaign first—even as Kyiv has offered Fico two specific dates to come to Ukraine and discuss the dispute in person.
EU partners are pressing a country under Russian bombardment to restore Russian oil revenues, and Brussels is now considering funding the repairs.
“I wouldn’t believe him if he told me the sky was blue”
In a video posted to X, Fico said he sees no point in meeting Zelenskyy without prior coordination with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen—whom he plans to approach during a nuclear energy forum in Paris this week.
“He is harming the entire European Union and will get nothing from it. He is losing the support of more and more countries.”
“We must pressure President Zelenskyy to allow an on-site inspection, and further pressure him to let oil flow through his territory,” he said. “He is harming the entire European Union and will get nothing from it.
He is losing the support of more and more countries.” On Zelenskyy’s claims about the pipeline damage, Fico was blunt: “I wouldn’t believe President Zelenskyy if he told me the sky was blue.”
Zelenskyy’s office has proposed 6 or 9 March as dates for Fico to visit Ukraine. Fico has not accepted.
The pipeline Russia keeps destroying
Russia struck the Brody pumping station in Lviv Oblast on 27 January, triggering a storage tank fire that burned for ten days and damaged pumps, power cables, transformers, and leak-detection systems, Naftogaz CEO Sergii Koretskyi told Bloomberg.
Zelenskyy said on 24 February he sees no point in rebuilding what Russia repeatedly destroys—and told Orbán to negotiate an “energy ceasefire” with Putin instead.
Given the scale of the destruction, Kyiv has not been able to provide a repair timeline. Repair crews have worked under the threat of renewed Russian strikes, and Moscow would likely target the facility again once it’s fixed, Bloomberg’s sources said.
Zelenskyy said on 24 February he sees no point in rebuilding what Russia repeatedly destroys—and told Orbán to negotiate an “energy ceasefire” with Putin instead. Neither Budapest nor Bratislava has publicly acknowledged the January Russian strike as the cause of the outage.
Brussels considers paying for the repairs
Bloomberg reported that the European Commission is weighing channeling financial assistance to Ukraine through its existing budgetary support mechanism, and is also prepared to offer technical expertise. The Commission has not confirmed the plan. It is separately in talks with Kyiv about a fact-finding mission to verify the damage on the ground.
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Slovakia has halted emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine.
The funding discussion is taking place as Orbán blocks €90 billion ($106 billion) in EU loans to Ukraine—and faces parliamentary elections on 12 April in which he is trailing opposition leader Péter Magyar by roughly 20 points. Slovakia has halted emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine.
Slovakia formally terminates emergency electricity contract with Ukraine — Kyiv had already been refused when it asked
In a 26 February letter to the European Council president, Orbán said he supports a joint fact-finding mission and would accept its findings.
What Budapest won’t mention
As Euromaidan Press reported, Hungary’s own oil company MOL accepted 35,000 tonnes of Ukrainian crude through Druzhba in the days after the January strike—while Orbán accused Kyiv of blocking the pipeline for political reasons. It is Budapest and Bratislava, not Kyiv, that have repeatedly broken EU consensus on Ukraine aid, sanctions packages, and loan disbursements.
The EU’s roadmap commits to banning Russian crude imports by 2027.
The EU’s own roadmap commits to banning Russian crude imports by 2027. Paying Ukraine to restore those same flows now would mean subsidizing infrastructure for a trade Brussels has pledged to end.
