Reuters. Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Thursday (April 23) that he welcomed the reopening of the Druzhba pipeline but that he believed this proved that the blockage was politically motivated.
Slovakia started receiving crude oil through the Druzhba pipeline early on Thursday, confirming the end of a months-long outage after what Ukraine said was a Russian strike on the pipeline.
"I believe that a serious relationship between Ukraine and the European Union was established yesterday and today through the agreements reached regarding the loan and the opening of the Druzhba pipeline," Fico told reporters.
He added that the opening of the Druzhba pipeline at 2 a.m. this morning had confirmed “it wasn’t damaged, and the Druzhba pipeline and oil were used as tools in a geopolitical struggle.”
There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
Hungary and Slovakia continue to rely on Russian oil and gas and are trying to maintain supplies despite EU efforts to end Russian energy imports after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The Druzhba pipeline has become one of the most politically charged pieces of infrastructure in Europe since the halt in Russian oil deliveries to Hungary and Slovakia in January.
Oil through the Ukrainian section of the pipeline started flowing on Wednesday, prompting Hungary to lift its veto on a 90 billion euro ($105.4 billion) EU loan urgently needed by Ukraine.
