Oil supplies from Russia via Druzhba pipeline again halted due to Ukrainian attack - Hungarian FM

MOSCOW. Aug 22 (Interfax) - Russian oil shipments via the Druzhba oil pipeline have again been halted due an attack by the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

"Information was received overnight that the Druzhba oil pipeline on the Russian-Belarusian border [...] was attacked for the third time over a brief period of time. Oil transportation to Hungary has been stopped once again!," Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto wrote on the Facebook social network (an information resource of Meta Platforms Inc., designated as extremist and banned in Russia).

"This is another attack on the energy security of our country," Szijjarto said.

Oil deliveries to Slovakia have also been suspended, the press service of Slovak oil transport operator Transpetrol told Interfax. "Oil deliveries to Slovakia via the Druzhba pipeline were halted on the evening of August 21, 2025. The pumping of oil was stopped outside of the Republic of Slovakia," it said.

Szijjarto and Slovak Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar have forwarded a letter to the European Commission calling for guarantees for the security of energy supplies.

"As a consequence of the latest missile attack, deliveries seem to be suspended for at least five days. The physical and geographic reality is that without this pipeline, the safe supply of our countries is simply not possible," Szijjarto and Blanar said in the letter.

They refer to the European Commission's statement, dated January 27, 2025, which said that "integrity of the energy infrastructure supplying EU member states is a matter of EU security" and called on "all third countries to respect this." It was also said that the European Commission stood "ready to take measures to protect critical energy infrastructure such as electricity cables and oil and gas pipelines or facilities."

"It should be clear to everyone that by these attacks, Ukraine is causing damage not to Russia, but to Hungary and Slovakia in the first place. The Druzhba oil pipeline plays a key role in our country's energy supply, without which it is physically impossible to supply it with oil. [...] However, after all three attacks, the European Commission kept silent and did not act in our interests," Szijjarto said when commenting on the letter to the European Commission.

As reported, Russian oil supplies to Hungary and Slovakia were halted on August 18 following a Ukrainian overnight strike on a substation of the Druzhba oil pipeline, through which Russian oil is shipped to these countries. Supplies were restored in 24 hours.