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EU inspects Druzhba pipeline in bid to unclog Hungary’s block on Ukraine aid
Hungarian leader Viktor Orban has vetoed giving Ukraine its promised US$103 billion EU loan until Russian oil supply is resumed
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European Union experts have arrived in Ukraine to assess the condition of the Druzhba oil pipeline, state energy firm Naftogaz said, after its closure in January caused a row with Hungary that is blocking an EU loan to Kyiv.
The EU last week proposed sending a mission to inspect the pipeline. Ukraine later said it had accepted the EU offer of technical support and funding to restore oil flows through the damaged pipeline.
Hungary and Slovakia have been cut off from Russian oil deliveries via Druzhba since late January, after Kyiv said a Russian strike hit pipeline equipment in western Ukraine and would require time for repairs.
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“Naftogaz appreciates the EU’s offer of financial and technical assistance to rebuild the infrastructure assets of the Brody pumping station,” Naftogaz CEO Serhiy Koretskyi said on social media late on Wednesday.
He posted a photo of himself sitting at a table with several unnamed experts who he described as members of a “technical working group”.
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Koretskyi said the group’s work should help Naftogaz and its subsidiary Ukrtransnafta restore the pipeline “in accordance with the highest European engineering and safety standards and to prevent further terrorist attacks”.
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