Oil flows to Hungary and Slovakia via Russia’s Druzhba pipeline have been halted after a Russian airstrike damaged the conduit on Ukrainian territory, leaving the two landlocked EU states scrambling for alternative routes for Russian crude despite Brussels’ ban on seaborne imports.
Hungary and Slovakia are the last European Union countries still receiving Russian oil through the southern branch of the Druzhba pipeline, which runs across Ukraine.
But supplies stopped following a Jan. 27 air raid that damaged the line, Ukraine’s foreign minister said.
There have been no Russian oil deliveries to Hungary and Slovakia in February, Bloomberg reported.
In January, flows had averaged 150,000 barrels per day (bpd), the person said.
By comparison, average daily shipments in the first two months of the years 2022-2025 stood at about 200,000 bpd, they added.
Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said last week that the southern leg of the Druzhba pipeline was hit during the Jan. 27 Russian attack, publishing photos of what he described as the burning pipeline.
“We know that the Hungarian side is preparing to complain again about problems with Russian oil transit through the Druzhba pipeline. We can only advise them to approach their 'friends' in Moscow with these photos,” he wrote on X.
On Monday, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó accused Ukraine of failing to resume transit for political reasons, saying he and Slovakia’s economy minister had asked Croatia to help secure Russian oil supplies via the Adria pipeline.
“We request Croatia to enable the transport of Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia via the Adria pipeline, as our sanctions exemption provides the possibility to import Russian oil by sea if pipeline deliveries are disrupted,” Szijjártó wrote on X. "The security of a country's energy supply must never be an ideological issue. We therefore expect Croatia, unlike Ukraine, not to endanger the oil supply security of Hungary and Slovakia for political reasons."
Szijjártó said an exemption from EU sanctions granted to Hungary and Slovakia allows them to import Russian oil by sea in the event of pipeline disruptions.
However, the EU imposed an embargo on seaborne imports of Russian crude in December 2022, with the exemption for the two landlocked countries applying only to pipeline deliveries.
The Adria pipeline runs from Croatia’s Adriatic coast into Hungary, enabling crude delivered by tankers to be pumped inland.
Budapest has so far resisted repeated calls from Brussels to diversify supplies by increasing deliveries via Adria from non-Russian exporters.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government has previously argued that Adria lacks sufficient capacity to meet Hungary’s needs and that higher transit fees imposed by Croatia make shipments commercially unviable.
In October 2025, Szijjártó accused Croatia of “trying to profit from the war in Ukraine.”
Croatian Economy Minister Ante Šušnjar said at the time that repeated Hungarian allegations of excessive transit fees and insufficient pipeline capacity were “100% not true.”
“This is just an excuse for buying Russian oil. We have no problem ensuring supplies. We can be ready within minutes,” he told Politico. “We have no obstacles to providing the oil. We [can be] ready in a matter of minutes.”
Analysts say Budapest has shown little political will to phase out Russian oil. Ilona Gizińska, a Hungary expert at the Center for Eastern Studies, has argued that the most problematic aspect of such a move would be its impact on the state budget, with Hungary’s deficit nearing 4.6% of GDP.
While EU imports of Russian crude have fallen from 26% in 2021 to around 3%, Hungary has only increased its reliance from 61% to 86%, according to analysts.
Slovakia remains fully dependent on Russian oil imports.
Read this story in Russian at The Moscow Times' Russian service.
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