BRATISLAVA, February 24. /TASS/. The Slovakian government has asked the European Commission to inspect the Druzhba pipeline in Ukraine to determine whether it is indeed unsuitable for oil transportation, Slovakia's Minister of Foreign and European Affairs Juraj Blanar said.
"The approach of the Ukrainian side is not clear to us. They do not maintain communication with us and do not provide us with necessary information despite requests from our representatives for admission to the site of the [pipeline’s] damage. We’ve also asked EU Energy Commissioner [Dan] Jorgensen to send an inspection team to the site to establish how serious the damage is that oil supplies cannot continue," the minister was quoted as saying by TASR news agency.
The Slovak refinery Slovnaft ensures 15% of Ukraine’s oil consumption, Blanar said, adding that Slovakia supplies electricity to the neighboring country in case of need. "We are helping Ukraine as much as we can. We do not understand why there is no response from them, and why we can’t visit the site of the [pipeline’s] damage to decide how we could jointly deal with the situation. <…> I’m thoroughly convinced that the Ukrainian side will take advantage of this time to negotiate, and that we will not have to take any more retaliatory measures. We need to know what lies ahead, and therefore we need relevant information [about the state of the pipeline]," he explained.
Transit supplies of Russian oil to Slovakia via the Druzhba pipeline through Ukraine have been suspended since the beginning of February. On February 18, the Slovak government declared a crisis in the republic due to oil shortages. On Monday, the TA-3 television channel reported the suspension of electricity supplies from Slovakia to Ukraine, citing Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico. Hungarian authorities also reported that pipeline oil deliveries to the country ceased in late January.