Oil flows via Druzhba to resume on April 21 — Hungarian minister

BUDAPEST, April 21. /TASS/. Ukraine will resume transit of Russian oil to Hungary via the Druzhba pipeline at noon on April 21, Hungarian Minister for European Union Affairs Janos Boka said. "Today I was in Brussels, where I discussed, among other things, the resumption of operations of the Druzhba pipeline. The most likely scenario is that the Ukrainian side will announce the resumption of the pipeline’s operation around noon on Tuesday," he wrote on Facebook (banned in Russia due to its ownership by Meta, which has been designated as extremist). The minister noted that "after the announcement, the operator will contact MOL Group," which receives Russian oil for its refineries in Hungary and Slovakia. Recently, by agreement with the government, it has been using oil from Hungary’s national strategic reserves. Supplies via Druzhba have been halted since January 27. Boka said that "if Hungary had not blocked the EU’s €90 billion loan for Ukraine, oil supplies via the Druzhba pipeline would never have resumed." "The Hungarian strategy worked: Ukrainians ran out of money before we ran out of oil," the minister added. He also criticized the European Commission for refusing to defend the interests of an EU member state whose energy security was threatened by Ukraine.