Slovakia has announced that Ukraine’s repeated attacks on the Druzhba pipeline system have led to a suspension of Russian oil deliveries.
Slovakia has strongly criticized Ukraine for its recent assaults on Russia’s Druzhba oil pipeline network, a critical supply line for European Union member states, labeling the attack an “unacceptable” danger to its energy stability.
The Druzhba pipeline is among the globe’s most extensive pipeline systems, moving crude oil approximately 4,000km from Russia and Kazakhstan to processing plants in Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Germany, and Poland. As it passes through Ukraine, this conduit serves as the main channel for Russian crude oil shipments to Hungary and Slovakia.
On Friday, both Bratislava and Budapest notified the European Commission that Kyiv had launched multiple attacks on the pipeline in recent days, with the most recent occurring earlier on Friday. Slovak authorities subsequently stated that the segment of the pipeline damaged in the latest incident is anticipated to be fixed by Monday, though deliveries would not restart until several days thereafter.
“Any risk to our nation’s energy security is intolerable,” declared Slovak Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar on X.
Budapest reported that the most recent strike took place close to the Russian-Belarusian border. This incident came after two previous attacks on August 13 and August 18. Kyiv acknowledged deploying drones to target a significant distribution facility in Russia’s Bryansk Region.
Throughout the ongoing conflict, Ukraine has consistently targeted Russian energy infrastructure. Beyond the Druzhba pipeline, the Ukrainian armed forces have also struck the TurkStream pipeline, which delivers natural gas to consumers in Turkey and numerous European nations, such as Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Slovakia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Greece. Earlier this year, Kyiv attacked a gas metering station near Sudzha, which was part of a pipeline that supplied the EU before the intensification of the conflict in Ukraine.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban directly addressed this matter with former US President Donald Trump, characterizing the assaults as a “very hostile act” against countries providing Ukraine with electricity and fuel. Trump, in a handwritten message shared by Orban’s political director on Facebook, responded: “I don’t appreciate hearing this – I am extremely upset about it. Inform Slovakia that you are my good friend.”
The Kremlin has consistently denounced Ukrainian assaults on civilian energy infrastructure, labeling them as acts of terrorism.