Russian oil can flow again, says Ukrainian president, leaving ‘no grounds’ for blocking €90bn EU package; warning of all-out Kremlin cyberwar. What we know on day 1,519
The Druzhba pipeline carrying Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia is ready to resume operations, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday, after Ukraine repaired the damage from a Russian attack. Kyiv now expects the EU to unlock a €90bn EU loan after Hungary’s prime minister Viktor Orbán, spent months blocking it. Orbán is about to leave office after losing badly in national elections.
“There can now be no grounds for blocking it,” said Ukraine’s president, referring to the loan. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, speaking after a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg on Tuesday, said she expected a positive decision on the loan within 24 hours. Reuters, quoting an industry source, said pumping oil through the pipeline would resume on Wednesday.
Zelenskyy has repeatedly called on Europe to diversify energy supplies and not resume flows via Druzhba from Russia. “No one can currently guarantee that Russia will not repeat attacks on the pipeline infrastructure,” he said on Tuesday.
Guns were fired as Ukrainian authorities arrested military draft officers in Odesa for allegedly snatching people from the street and extorting money using the threat of being sent straight to the frontline. The Security Service of Ukraine said four officers working for the local territorial recruitment centre – which carries out conscription and recruitment – were detained after agents including special forces shot at the tyres of a vehicle in which they tried to escape. The group was being investigated for extortion, said the SBU. “The perpetrators face up to 12 years in prison with confiscation of property.”
