The Ukrainian leader will \u201cnever\u201d reopen the Druzhba pipeline, the Slovak prime minister has said<\/p>\n
Ukraine\u2019s Vladimir Zelensky will never restore oil flows through the Druzhba pipeline, which serves as the key artery for delivering Russian oil to Slovakia and Hungary, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has said.
\nHe has rebuked the EU for its reluctance to exert sufficient pressure on Kiev to unlock oil supplies despite having ample opportunity to do so.
\nUkraine shut down the key Soviet-era pipeline in late January, claiming the halt was due to damage by a Russian drone strike. Moscow, however, has denied targeting it, with Bratislava and Budapest also rejecting Kiev\u2019s account and insisting it was part of a Ukrainian blackmail campaign.
\nIn a video address on Sunday, Fico said that he had spoken with Zelensky about the situation, describing the call as \u201cvery strange.\u201d\u00a0\u201cZelensky will never put oil through the Druzhba pipeline, never,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt looks as if he wants to punish us. Because you have peaceful positions, you have different opinions than us, that you do not support war loans and that you are not for war, then you will not have gas and you will not have oil.\u201d
\nIn separate remarks on Saturday, he challenged the EU over the inability to dispatch a fact-finding mission to the pipeline. \u201cA legitimate question must arise as to whose interests are more important for [the EU]\u2014 those of Ukraine or those of EU member states,\u201d Fico said.
\nThe Slovak prime minister recalled that Brussels has immense financial leverage over Zelensky but deliberately refrains from using it. \u201cDear Vladimir, do you want European money?.. I\u2019m afraid that none of the key players in the EU will ever say this sentence to President Zelensky. This style of communication is only used towards EU member states that allow themselves to have sovereign opinions.\u201d
\nHungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban earlier accused Ukraine of preventing the country\u2019s delegation from inspecting the pipeline, suggesting that the Zelensky team is doing so to conceal deceit.
\nBoth Hungary and Slovakia have long been at odds with Kiev as they have opposed Ukraine\u2019s membership in the EU and NATO, arguing it could draw the blocs into a direct conflict with Russia. The two countries have also been reluctant to bankroll Kiev\u2019s military effort against Moscow.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Ukrainian leader will \u201cnever\u201d reopen the Druzhba pipeline, the Slovak prime minister has said Ukraine\u2019s Vladimir Zelensky will never restore oil flows through the Druzhba pipeline, which serves as…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":31331,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t