Ukraine has repaired the Druzhba oil pipeline, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday, paving the way for Kyiv to receive a long-awaited €90 billion EU loan.
“As agreed in communication with the European Union, Ukraine has completed repair work on the section of the Druzhba oil pipeline that was damaged by a Russian strike,” Zelenskyy wrote in a post on social media. “The pipeline can resume operation.”
“We connect this with the unblocking of the European support package for Ukraine, which had already been approved by the European Council,” Zelenskyy added.
The pipeline, which stopped transporting oil from Russia to Central Europe after it was damaged in a Russian strike in January, became the focus of a bitter dispute between Ukraine and Hungary. Budapest, which receives the vast majority of its oil from Moscow, accused Kyiv of slow-walking repairs and subsequently vetoed a €90 billion EU loan for Ukraine, initially approved by the bloc’s leaders at a summit in December.
