Repairs to Druzhba pipeline 'not that fast,' Zelenskiy says

By Pavel Polityuk and Olena Harmash

KYIV, Feb 25 (Reuters) - ‌Repairs to the Druzhba ​pipeline, which carries ​Russian oil to Eastern Europe, cannot be completed quickly despite requests from the European Union and protests by Hungary, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday.

Shipments of Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia have been cut off since January ‌27, when Kyiv says a Russian strike hit pipeline equipment in western Ukraine. Slovakia and Hungary say Ukraine ⁠is to blame for the prolonged outage.

"Firstly, it's not that fast," Zelenskiy told reporters, adding that Russian strikes had destroyed the pipeline linking the Black Sea port of Odesa ‌with Druzhba. "This is not their first strike, ‌and they continue to hit the energy sector."

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said during a visit to Kyiv on Tuesday to mark the fourth anniversary of Russia's invasion that the EU was asking Ukraine to speed up repairs.

"They advise us to repair it, ​but they know that there have already been attacks on Druzhba," Zelenskiy said. "Our people were injured so that it would work."

ORBAN'S ACCUSATIONS

Despite the war, Ukraine has continued to transport Russian oil through the pipelines across its territory, though it halted the transit of Russian gas ⁠at the start of last year.

Hungary accused Kyiv of deliberately delaying the restart of the pipeline, the main route for delivering Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia since the 1960s.

Hungarian Prime ​Minister Viktor Orban said on Wednesday the suspension was purely political and that Ukraine was "preparing further actions".

"The Ukrainian government is putting pressure on Hungary and Slovakia with an oil blockade," he said. Ukraine did not ​immediately respond to his comments.

The Ukrainian media outlet Evropeiska Pravda said Ukraine had ‌submitted a letter to an EU meeting on oil issues saying Russian military action had taken the pipeline out of service and rejecting "ultimatums and political pressure".

"Russia bears full responsibility for the interruption in shipments of oil through ⁠the 'Druzhba' pipeline as a consequence of its terrorist attacks on Ukrainian critical infrastructure," the letter said.

"We draw your attention to the unacceptability of ultimatums and political pressure from specific member-states..."

Orban has long been at loggerheads with the EU over Ukraine, among many other issues. Defying Brussels, he has maintained cordial ties with Moscow, ⁠refuses to send weapons to Ukraine, and says Kyiv should never join the 27-nation bloc.

ATTACKS ON NAFTOGAZ

Russia has sharply intensified its attacks on Ukrainian power plants and ​the gas sector in recent months, causing acute power shortages, depriving it of almost half its gas production capacity, and forcing it to increase imports from Europe.

Some of that comes from Hungary and Slovakia, which have threatened to halt emergency electricity exports to Ukraine because of the Druzhba dispute.

At the request of U.S. ‌President Donald Trump, Russia agreed to a short-term pause in attacks earlier this month.

"Hungarians should appeal to the Russians to grant an energy truce," Zelenskiy said.

Kyiv has repeatedly attacked Russian oil facilities, including the section ‌of the Druzhba pipeline running through Russian territory, but has also proposed an energy truce to Moscow.

On Wednesday, Ukraine's national oil and gas company Naftogaz said ⁠60 Russian drones had attacked its facilities in the north ‌and east of the country.

"For two days, ​strikes on gas storage facilities and production facilities in the Kharkiv and Chernihiv regions have continued unabated," Naftogaz said in a statement.

(Reporting by Olena Harmash; additional reporting by Anita Komuves in Budapest; Editing by Daniel Flynn, Aidan Lewis ‌and Gareth Jones)

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