Russian oil has started flowing through the Ukrainian section of the Druzhba pipeline after a halt lasting months. The move allows Hungary to lift its veto on a 90 billion euro EU loan urgently needed by Kyiv.
The Druzhba pipeline has become one of the most politically charged pieces of infrastructure in Europe since a Russian drone strike damaged the pipeline in western Ukraine and stopped Russian oil deliveries to Hungary and Slovakia.
Hungarian oil group MOL said that Ukraine had informed it that deliveries of Russian crude had resumed through the pipeline. Shortly afterwards, EU ambassadors meeting in Brussels approved the loan.
The European Union’s 27 member states are expected to formally sign it by tomorrow. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said, the EU’s decision was the right signal under the current circumstances.