European Commission agrees to foot Druzhba pipeline repair bill in deal with Slovakia’s Fico

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico announced that the European Commission has agreed to bear the costs of any repairs that may be required on the Druzhba pipeline running through Ukraine.

Fico made the announcement following a meeting with Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on the sidelines of a nuclear energy conference in Paris.

Having pressed Brussels to lean on Kyiv to restore the pipeline to operation, Fico said in a video message released after the meeting: “I am pleased that on this matter we share the same position as the European Commission.” He added that the Commission had agreed to undertake the necessary repairs and cover the associated costs.

Kyiv blames damage; Bratislava disputes the claim

The current state of the Druzhba pipeline — which carries Russian oil through Ukraine to Slovakia and Hungary — presents a sharply contested picture.

Ukrainian officials maintain that the pipeline sustained severe damage as a result of Russian bombardment, and that this is the reason its resumption has been delayed.

Fico and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, however, accuse Kyiv of deliberately shutting down the pipeline for political reasons.

Fico has effectively blocked the EU’s latest sanctions package against Russia as leverage to compel Kyiv to restore the Druzhba line. He has also continued to threaten to coordinate with Orbán to obstruct a €90 billion EU credit facility earmarked for Kyiv.

Commission chief spokesperson Paula Pinho, for her part, confirmed that the institution had previously acknowledged it was “examining” the option of assuming responsibility for the pipeline repair costs.

Budapest and Bratislava remain the only EU capitals still benefiting from an exemption that permits them to continue importing Russian oil. That exemption — granted to two landlocked countries with limited alternative supply routes — has effectively transformed both into critical veto nodes within the EU’s broader energy policy toward Russia.