Kyiv hopeful restoration of pipeline will unblock EU loan, with bloc\u2019s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas expecting \u2018positive decision\u2019.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n Published On 21 Apr 2026<\/span>21 Apr 2026<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said a pipeline carrying Russian oil to Europe is ready to resume operations after being damaged during Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.<\/p>\n Zelenskyy said on Tuesday he expected the completed \u201crepair work\u201d on the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline running through his country would lead to the release of a much-needed 90-million-euro ($106m) European Union loan hitherto blocked by Hungary, which depends on the Russian oil.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n Ukraine says the pipeline was damaged late in January by Russian attacks, but Hungary and Slovakia, which also remain dependent on Russian oil since the start of the war more than four years ago, have accused Kyiv of dragging its feet over the repairs.<\/p>\n \u201cThe pipeline can resume operation,\u201d said Zelenskyy. \u201cWe connect this with the unblocking of the European support package for Ukraine, which had already been approved by the European Council.\u201d<\/p>\n Hopes have been raised that Hungary will now lift its veto on the loan, both as a result of the pipeline\u2019s opening, but also because Kremlin-friendly Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban is on his way out after losing recent elections.<\/p>\n Later on Tuesday, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said she expected a \u201cpositive decision\u201d on the loan in the next 24 hours. EU ambassadors are expected to give the final greenlight to release the blocked loan for Ukraine when they meet on Wednesday.<\/p>\n Following Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the EU banned seaborne imports of Russian oil but kept land flows legal.<\/p>\n Zelenskyy said on X that he had discussed the unblocking of the loan with European Council President Antonio Costa. \u201cUkraine has fulfilled what the European Union asked of us,\u201d he said, referring to both Hungary and Slovakia\u2019s demands that the pipeline be reopened.<\/p>\n For its part, the Kremlin said on Tuesday Russia was technically ready to resume oil flows through the Druzhba \u200cpipeline to Hungary and Slovakia if and when Ukraine ended what Moscow called its \u201cblackmail\u201d.<\/p>\n Ukraine needs the EU funds to plug looming holes in its budget, but has managed to secure enough money from other backers in the meantime, while Hungary has stalled the loan.<\/p>\n In parallel, Ukrainian drones struck an oil-pumping and dispatch facility in Russia\u2019s Samara region overnight, an official from Ukraine\u2019s SBU security service said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n The facility, part of the Druzhba oil pipeline supply chain, is located in the village of Prosvet in the Samara region.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Kyiv hopeful restoration of pipeline will unblock EU loan, with bloc\u2019s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas expecting \u2018positive decision\u2019. Published On 21 Apr 202621 Apr 2026 Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said a pipeline carrying Russian oil to Europe is ready to resume operations after being damaged during Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Zelenskyy said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19861,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19860","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19860"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19860\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/19861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inernews.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/2017-06-08T131939Z_1189275883_RC11B0FE7F20_RTRMADP_3_GULF-QATAR-JAZEERA-1714943623.jpg?resize=96%2C96&quality=80)
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