MOSCOW, February 21. /TASS/. Kiev spends scarce electricity not on the needs of the Ukrainian people, but on the production of drones, former Ukrainian Prime Minister (2010-2014) Nikolai Azarov said in an interview with TASS.

Earlier, he said that Hungary and Slovakia’s severing of diesel fuel supplies to Ukraine had put Kiev in a desperate situation with regards to the restoration of transit through the Druzhba oil pipeline.

"I'm not sure that the interests of its own people will outweigh for the Kiev regime, because right now, in conditions of extreme electricity shortages, in most cases they decide to direct the scarce electricity not to meet the needs of their people at all, but to the work of various enterprises implementing plans to produce drones. There are other goals there," Azarov said.

He also said that the authorities continue to export electricity.

Hungary and Slovakia, opposing the EU, did not abandon cheap Russian energy. However, Ukraine blocked the Druzhba oil pipeline, used for the supplies, on its territory. Zagreb agreed to allow pumping through the Adriatic pipeline.

On February 18, Hungary and Slovakia, without waiting for Brussels' actions in response to Ukraine’s blocking of the oil supplies, terminated diesel fuel sales to Kiev.

Ukraine has had problems with electricity supply since the end of 2025 amid very cold weather and vast damage to the energy infrastructure. Currently, the country's energy sector is in emergency. Multi-hour blackout schedules are introduced daily in all regions, and there may be no electricity for 8-16 hours a day.