Resolving the Druzhba pipeline standoff will have key implications for the ongoing political struggle inside the European Union over Ukraine, analyst Volodymyr Yermolenko has said, after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the line was ready to resume operations. Druzhba, which carries Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia via Ukraine, has been at the center of a long-running dispute that resulted in Budapest vetoing a €90 billion EU loan seen as critical to Kyiv’s war effort. Yermolenko, editor-in-chief of UkraineWorld, told TVP World’s World Talks that the breakthrough looks set to unblock the stalemate at a moment when Ukraine urgently needs outside financing. “It’s good news indeed,” he said. Energy as pressure Druzhba, one of the last routes still carrying Russian oil into parts of Central Europe, was damaged in a Russian strike earlier this year and has been at the center of a standoff over the EU loan. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government in Budapest has linked its support for the package to the restoration of oil flows through Druzhba. Yermolenko said Russia had long used energy to “divide and rule inside Europe,” pointing to both Druzhba and the legacy of the Russian-German Nord Stream pipelines. In his view, the episode is another reminder that the EU must reduce Moscow’s leverage over member states still dependent on Russian supplies. Yermolenko added that the loan was vital because Ukraine must direct much of its own income toward defense, while European support helps keep the budget and wider economy running. “The war is also about money. The war is also about the economy,” he said.
