Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, has accused European allies of trying to “blackmail” Kiev into reopening a pipeline that carries Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia. He said that the return of the flow of Russian oil through Ukraine to the European Union would be equivalent to the lifting of economic sanctions against Moscow.

Ukraine says that the Soviet pipeline “Druzhba” was damaged by Russian airstrikes in January and has not yet been repaired. Meanwhile, Hungary, which depends on Russian energy, is blocking new EU sanctions on Russia and a vital €90bn loan to Kiev until the pipeline is reopened.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has made his critical stance towards Ukraine a key issue ahead of April elections. Some EU officials fear that Zelensky’s resistance to reopening the pipeline could help Orban win re-election.

Speaking to reporters in Kiev, Zelensky said he is opposed in principle to Russian oil passing through Ukraine while the EU imposes sanctions on it elsewhere. He added that if Russian oil supplies are reopened, he is personally against it, but warned that if conditions such as a ban on arms supplies are imposed on Ukraine, then this would be “blackmail”.

He also stressed that the EU’s decision to give Ukraine a loan of 90 billion euros has been approved by all 27 member countries and should be implemented.

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Source: prizrenpost