Central Europe has been plunged into fresh energy anxiety after a series of Ukrainian drone strikes disrupted the flow of Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline, igniting a war of words between Kyiv, Budapest and Bratislava.
In 2022, after Russia invaded Ukraine, the European Union imposed a ban on most oil imports from Russia.
But the Druzhba pipeline was temporarily exempted from this, in order to give landlocked Hungary and Slovakia time to diversify their supply.
But when Ukrainian drone strikes hit a "fuel infrastructure facility" in Russia's Unechsky district in mid-August, according to Aleksandr Bogomaz, the governor of the country's western Bryansk region where the district is located, this forced temporary shutdowns of pumping stations, bringing crude deliveries to Hungary and Slovakia to a halt.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó responded by accusing Ukraine of using an "attack on [Hungary's] energy security" as a threat to sovereignty.
"The war, to which we have no connection, is not a legitimate justification for violating our sovereignty," Szijjártó posted online.
Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Friday that he had complained to United States President Donald Trump after Ukraine's military actions against Russia's invasion disrupted oil supplies.
He did not directly name the pipeline, but an important pumping station for Druzhba -- Russian for "friendship" -- is in the district and has been targeted many times.
"I asked for the help of the American president. The Ukrainians keep shelling the Friendship oil pipeline," Orban said, according to a Facebook post by his Fidesz party on Friday. He added that Trump had replied, expressing support.
Slovak Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar called on Brussels to intervene and guarantee stable energy supplies, saying: "The attacks by the Ukrainian army on the Druzhba oil pipeline not only contradict the national interests of Slovakia, but they do not benefit Ukraine itself."
Soviet symbol
The Druzhba pipeline was completed in 1964 as a symbol of Soviet bloc unity and strategic control, and is one of the world's longest oil pipelines and one of its largest oil pipeline networks.
Stretching more than 5,500 kilometres from Russia to Central Europe, it has survived the Cold War, the collapse of the USSR and decades of shifting energy policy to remain an energy backbone for Hungary and Slovakia.
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Yet the reliability of Druzhba is increasingly called into question – most recently by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who suggested on Sunday that the pipeline’s future depends on Hungary’s position regarding Ukraine’s EU accession.
“We always supported the friendship between Ukraine and Hungary. And now the existence of the friendship depends on what Hungary’s position is,” Zelensky said — in a possible indication that pipeline attacks may serve as leverage in the increasingly complex diplomacy surrounding Ukraine’s place in Europe.
Analysts see Ukraine’s strikes as part of a wider campaign to dent Russia’s war chest.
“Every disruption is not just about shortages, but about leverage, in Brussels and Moscow alike,” said Radovan Potocar, a Slovak energy analyst in an interview with Radio Slovakia International.
Hungary and Slovakia, for now, continue to insist that Russian energy is crucial and resist broader EU moves to phase out Moscow’s oil and gas by 2027.
Nord Stream II
The attacks on the Druzhba are not the first time during the Russia-Ukraine conflict that crucial Russian energy infrastructure has been targeted.
In 2022, the explosion of the Nord Stream II gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea reverberated across Europe. An investigation by German weekly Der Spiegel pointed at Ukrainian involvement, which was supported by German and Swedish intelligence services.
American journalist accuses US Navy of Nord Stream pipeline attack
While the investigation implicated Ukrainian special forces, the Ukrainian government denied involvement, and the report noted the attack was allegedly conducted without the knowledge of President Zelensky
That attack, like the recent Druzhba strikes, highlighted the vulnerability of cross-border energy networks, and the ability of energy warfare to reshape Europe’s strategic landscape.
(with newswires)
