Hungary holds Ukraine aid ransom over Druzhba oil

Slovakia is ready to block the European Union's latest package of sanctions against Russia for its invasion of Ukraine until the Druzhba oil pipeline is operating again, the country's foreign minister was quoted as saying on Thursday.



Slovakia and Hungary have been in dispute with Ukraine over the suspension of Russian oil supplies through Druzhba after an outage on the line that Kyiv says was caused by a Russian attack in late January.



Kyiv has said repairs need time, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said this week Druzhba would be operational by the end of the month.



"If the Druzhba oil pipeline is not operational and the approval of the 20th package (of EU sanctions) is on the table, we will not approve it," Slovak Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar was quoted by TASR news agency as saying in a parliament session.