Economy 25 February 2026, 4:22pm

Supply via Druzhba, which the two countries have relied on since the 1960s, was halted on 27 January due to damage which Kyiv blamed on a Russian drone strike.

"Croatia has communicated that it is assessing the situation, whether it can lawfully accept Russian crude at its port, both under the EU and U.S. sanctions," a European Commission spokesperson said.

The Croatian government did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Croatia has so far said Adria can import more oil, but suggested there is no need for this supply to be Russian.

The Adria pipeline serves as an alternative route to supply Hungary and Slovakia. In response to the outage via Ukraine, Hungary’s Mol Group has ordered extra cargoes of non-Russian crude to be piped via Adria.

Non-Russian oil is currently flowing normally through our system toward Hungary and Slovakia. It’s not a supplementary option; it’s an operational reality, and it means that our friends and allies in Hungary and Slovakia have a secure and reliable route of supply,

Croatian Economy Minister Ante Susnjar said in a post on X on Tuesday.

Janaf says Adria had sufficient capacity to cover the needs of oil refineries in the two countries. But this, too, has been the subject of dispute, with Janaf and Mol failing to agree last year on the results of capacity tests.

Any Russian crude ordered for delivery to Croatia could face difficulty skirting U.S. sanctions, which target Russia's top oil exporters.

EU sanctions ban imports of seaborne Russian crude, but landlocked Slovakia and Hungary hold exemptions in the event there is a disruption to their piped supply.

Slovakia and Hungary have accused Ukraine of stalling repairs to the Druzhba pipeline for political reasons. 

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Wednesday available information indicated the Druzhba pipeline could be operational, and blamed Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for delays. He said the latest word from Kyiv was that it would not be restarted until March 3.

"The Ukrainian president simply probably believes that he can do what he wants, but he is very, very mistaken," Fico said.

Hungary vetoed new EU sanctions on Russia this week in retaliation, and blocked a new EU loan for Kyiv, straining Europe's pro-Ukrainian consensus on the eve of the Ukraine war's fourth anniversary.

Brussels wants to adopt a full ban on Russian oil imports by 2027, and plans to propose legislation on this in mid-April, just days after Hungary's election.

Ukraine says it is trying to repair the pipeline and offered to arrange alternative routes to transport oil to EU countries via its Odesa-Brody pipeline, in a letter Ukraine's mission to the EU sent to the European Commission, dated February 20 and seen by Reuters.

The spokesperson also said that the European Commission understands Ukraine is ready to accelerate repairs to Druzhba and that the EU is assessing the Odesa-Brody option.

It might be, therefore, be a bit more of a midterm solution, rather than something that would immediately be a solution,

the spokesperson said.

Viktor Orbán has threatened to veto the €90 billion EU loan to Ukraine and the new package of sanctions. The prime minister has stated that he will not waver in his position until Kyiv reopens the key oil pipeline. Budapest believes that Ukraine is deliberately slowing down the repair work. Kyiv, on the other hand, claims that the pipeline was damaged by Russian strikes in January and that maintenance is necessary.

On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that

repairs to the Druzhba oil pipeline had not yet been completed.

Although high-level negotiations are ongoing in the background, it is unclear what it will take for Hungary to withdraw its veto on the EU loan. On Tuesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that the EU would secure the loan for Ukraine despite Budapest's resistance. "We have several options, and we will use them," she added.

Cover photo: EU