Ukraine has completed repairs on a damaged oil pipeline and is preparing to resume flows, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday, while warning that there is no guarantee Russia will not target the infrastructure again. The repair work on the Druzhba pipeline became a bargaining chip in a larger political standoff, delaying approval of a major 90 billion euro ($106 billion) EU loan intended to support Ukraine’s military and economic needs over the next two years.
Who Holds the Levers
Zelenskyy said repairing the pipeline was linked to freeing the funds, which had been blocked by Hungary and Slovakia. Top EU officials are now cautiously optimistic that the massive loan scheme might be approved as soon as Wednesday, ending months of political deadlock. The machinery of European power has been grinding along in public, with ordinary people and technicians left to deal with the consequences of decisions made in capitals and summit rooms.
“Ukraine has completed repair work on the section of the Druzhba oil pipeline that was damaged by a Russian strike. The pipeline can resume operation,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X. “Although no one can currently guarantee that Russia will not repeat attacks on the pipeline infrastructure, our specialists have ensured the basic conditions for restoring the operation of the pipeline system and equipment.”
“We connect this with the unblocking of the European support package for Ukraine, which had already been approved by the European Council,” he added. The message is plain enough: infrastructure repair, wartime survival, and access to money are all being tied together by institutions that control the flow of both fuel and funds.
Who Pays for the Standoff
Russian oil supplies to Hungary and Slovakia have been halted for two months after what Ukrainian officials say were Russian drone attacks that damaged the pipeline, which crosses Ukrainian territory, and that continuous strikes risk the lives of technicians trying to repair it. The people doing the repair work are the ones exposed to the danger, while the governments and blocs above them trade accusations and leverage.
The war in Ukraine that began in February 2022 with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has killed thousands, forced millions to flee their homes and turned cities into rubble. That wider destruction hangs over every move in the pipeline dispute, even as the negotiations are framed in the language of loans, approvals, and strategic patience.
Before being unseated by centrist challenger Péter Magyar, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had threatened to cut gas supplies to Ukraine. Both Hungary and Slovakia accused Kyiv of deliberately obstructing Russian deliveries. Zelenskyy said earlier this month he is reluctant to allow Russian oil to continue transiting through his country. Each side presents its own version of necessity, but the people living through the war and the infrastructure damage are the ones carrying the cost.
Summit Theater, Market Discipline
Speaking to reporters in Luxembourg after chairing a meeting of EU foreign ministers, the bloc’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the loan saga had taken many twists and turns. “We expect an agreement in 24 hours, so I don’t want to jinx it,” she said. EU envoys are due to meet Wednesday in hopes of ending the standoff. European Council President Antonio Costa, who will chair a summit of EU leaders starting Thursday, took to social media to thank Zelenskyy “for delivering, as agreed: repairing the Druzhba pipeline and restoring its operation.”
The 27-nation EU had originally intended to use Russian assets frozen in Europe as collateral for the loan. But that option was blocked by Belgium, where the bulk of the frozen assets are held. So even the financing plan itself is trapped inside another layer of institutional veto power, with one state’s control over frozen assets shaping what the bloc can do next.
In December, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia agreed not to stop their EU partners from borrowing the money on international markets as long as the three countries did not have to take part in the scheme. But Orbán angered the other 24 countries by later reneging on that deal over the pipeline dispute and as campaigning heated up ahead of elections earlier this month, which the veteran Hungarian leader lost in a landslide.
The whole affair reads like a lesson in how the apparatus works: infrastructure gets bombed, workers risk their lives repairing it, governments bargain over transit and loans, and summit officials congratulate one another once the machinery is back in motion.