“Hungary does not accept the shutdown of the Druzhba oil pipeline,” Czepek said, adding that the delegation’s job is to verify the pipeline’s condition and “create the conditions necessary for restarting it.” The pipeline delivers roughly 5 million metric tons of Russian crude to Hungary each year and is key to supplying the country’s Danube refinery, he said.
Czepek said the delegation, which was joined by Slovak experts, plans to meet Ukrainian energy officials as well as EU representatives and diplomats stationed in Kyiv to discuss the situation surrounding the Druzhba pipeline and the possibility of restarting deliveries.
The southern branch of the Druzhba pipeline has been offline since late January after a Russian drone strike hit oil infrastructure near the western Ukrainian hub of Brody. Ukrainian officials say the attack caused severe damage that will take time to repair. Budapest disputes that assessment, insisting the technical issues have already been resolved and accusing Kyiv of intentionally blocking the restart.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has raised the stakes in recent weeks, publishing satellite images he says prove the line could be restarted and giving Kyiv three days to allow inspectors access to the pipeline.
Orbán also wrote an open letter to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warning that Hungary could halt diesel shipments and restrict electricity exports if deliveries do not resume. On Friday he announced a joint Hungarian-Slovak “fact-finding” committee to investigate the pipeline.
The inspection effort comes as relations between Budapest and Kyiv have sharply deteriorated in recent weeks. Hungary in February blocked approval of a €90 billion EU loan package for Ukraine, and last week Hungarian authorities seized an Oschadbank convoy carrying tens of millions of dollars in cash and gold — an incident Kyiv’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha denounced as “state terrorism and racketeering.”
Kyiv rejects Hungary’s accusations. Zelenskyy has said he would prefer not to repair the Druzhba pipeline at all, arguing it transports Russian oil to Central Europe and undermines efforts to curb Moscow’s energy revenues.
It also comes as Europe faces rising global oil prices due to the war in the Middle East.