Arya News - The European Union has asked Ukraine to speed up the repair of the Druzhba oil pipeline, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Tuesday.
"We ask for the repairs [from Ukraine] on the pipeline ... to be accelerated," von der Leyen said at a press conference in Kiev. The EU is preparing an energy assistance package for Ukraine worth 920 million euros ($1 billion) by next winter, von der Leyen added.The United Kingdom has exempted the Druzhba oil pipeline from sanctions against Russia until October 2027, according to a document from the UK Treasury published on Tuesday.The license concerning the pipeline has been extended until October 14, 2027, the document read.It was expected that Ukraine would resume oil supplies via Druzhba on February 24, but Kiev postponed the deadline to February 25. On Monday, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said that Hungary had blocked the 20th package of anti-Russia sanctions and the 90 billion euro loan ($106 billion) to Ukraine due to Kiev"s shutdown of the Druzhba oil pipeline.On February 13, the Slovak Economy Ministry announced that oil supplies to the republic via the Druzhba pipeline had been suspended. The ministry expected them to resume in the coming days, but it did not happen. On February 18, the Slovak government declared a crisis situation due to oil shortages, deciding to allocate up to 250,000 tonnes of oil from state reserves to the Slovnaft refinery. Slovak Economy Minister Denisa Sakova said that the Ukrainian side had previously postponed the restoration of supplies several times.