The European Union has proposed sending a mission to Ukraine to inspect the Druzhba oil pipeline. This was confirmed on Thursday by a spokesperson for the European Commission, who said Brussels is now waiting for a response from Ukraine. The proposal follows a dispute over the causes and duration of the interruption in Russian oil supplies to Hungary and Slovakia.
Previous requests rejected
The European Commission has previously said it welcomes the idea of a joint inspection and is looking for a format for such a mission. Ukraine has so far argued that there are security risks and that this is a route through which Russian oil still flows into the EU.
Two of the five European diplomats and officials quoted by the British daily Financial Times recently said that European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and European Council president António Costa, during their visit to Kyiv on the fourth anniversary of the Russian invasion, explicitly asked the Ukrainian leadership for access to the Druzhba pipeline so they could independently assess its condition. However, their request was rejected.
‘We cannot say whether there has been damage or not. There are very simple ways to document this and show that they are working hard to fix it. They have not done so,’ said one EU official.
