Slovakia and Hungary have increased pressure on Kyiv after they said last week they had stopped receiving oil from Lukoil via Ukraine. Hungary receives 2 million metric tons of oil from the Russian group annually, around a third of its total oil imports, Hungary’s foreign minister Peter Szijjarto said.
The two countries have initiated a consultation with the European Commission, he said, adding the Commission had three days to respond.
If the consultation procedure did not yield results, Hungary and Slovakia would take the issue to an international court of their choosing instead, he said.
The Ukrainian foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment, though the head of Ukrainian energy firm Naftogaz acknowledged a lack of oil from Lukoil.
Wait, wait. The leaders of these two countries have a summer house up Putin’s arse and are constantly throwing stones in the EU’s path. But now the EU is good enough to pull the chestnuts out of the fire?
No, he means Hungary the country who has the presidency of EU is begging the same EU to obey Putin.
I would be confused too if I were you.
EU is just a tool and money pipe for them
These countries had two and a half years to stop sucking Putin’s oily tit and they didn’t, so while I feel sorry for the civilians caught in this crossfire, I don’t feel even slightly sorry for their politicians.
I’m also unsympathetic to them due to the fact that they think that the only solution is for the EU to pressure Ukraine into reopening supplies. Rather than them seeking alternate supplies.
What is crazy for me in this story is how this oil pipeline survived two and a half years of the full scale war with destroyed cities and burned ground…
Surely Russia took extra care to leave it unharmed for that sweet, sweet oil money.
Maybe Ukraine should rebuild their hospitals, schools and supermarkets above the pipeline! /s
Even so, it’s baffling to me why Ukraine didn’t shut it down earlier
Because both of them can shut down EU aid and Ukraine got money from Russia for the transit(yes really).
is there political analysis of why its still operational? where does it cross the country?
It looks like it is going near the Kherson city. It crosses the Russia-Ukraine border somewhere near Donetsk. Looks like it s going through the territories affected the most by the invasion.
You are mixing something up. The part going to Hungary and Slovakia flows from Belorussia, West of Kiiv, there were no clashes there.
Here is a better map, the now closed section is labeled Southern Druzhba:
(This map also shows some planned unbuilt extensions to Croatia)
Womp womp. They had over two years of time to prepare to get rid of Russian dependencies. Instead, they decided to become more Russia friendly and work against Ukraine. They have made their bed and now have to lie in it.
Putting aside the fact that they really should have been using alternate sources this entire time, what exactly was their plan for if the pipeline, that’s in a war zone, got destroyed either intentionally or by accident (after all Russia has not proven itself to be particularly accurate with its bombings). They’ve had the best part of 2 years to come up with a solution. I assume they simply didn’t bother.
I can appreciate that it’s a problem for them, but it’s a problem that is entirely of their own creation. It’s absolutely not Ukraine’s responsibility to deal with it nor do I think the EU really wants to get involved.
Not only they didn’t bother, but kept actively trying to suck Putin’s dick the whole time.
kek
