The European commission has also held some extraordinary meetings to discuss the growing hostilities, as the standoff is worsening due to the scheduling disruptions of the Druzhba oil pipeline. Ukrainian leaders have opined that Hungary and Slovakian leaders ought to complain to the Kremlin instead of Kyiv because the reason behind the instability of the situation is the actions of Russia.
Hungary has threatened to block the 20th sanctions package against Russia by the EU, the latest sanctions were supposed to be raised on the fourth anniversary of the full-scale invasion. Besides this, Budapest has threatened to block a EUR90 billion EU loan, that was aimed at supporting Ukraine in terms of military and economic needs. The only European Union members that continue to rely extensively on Russian crude supplied through the southern pipeline of the Druzhba pipeline are Hungary and Slovakia, who have received temporary concessions to more extensive EU energy restrictions.
Hungarian and Slovak authorities have accused Kyiv of purposely interfering with Russian oil supplies, and the halt has been labeled as political blackmail. They argue that there are no technical reasons to stop supplies and claim that Ukraine is leveraging transit control as a bargaining chip due to the disagreement with its intention to become a member of the European Union. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has gone on record to veto the accession of Ukraine on grounds of what he says are dangers of war being imported to the bloc. Legally, the issue surrounding the dispute is whether transit duties, energy security undertakings under the EU model, and whether countermeasures could be taken in times of war.
Ukraine has denied the charges as baseless and irresponsible. At Kyiv, it is argued that Russian drone and missile attacks that have destroyed critical infrastructure in western Ukraine have caused disruptions. According to the officials, the repair is already underway, but is hampered by the ongoing hostility. Attacks on the dual-use infrastructure can be disputed under the international law, especially the law of armed conflict, when the infrastructure is important in the supply of civilian energy and also in the supply of military logistics.
The interim attack was a response to Ukrainian long-range drone attacks against major nodes in the Russian Druzhba oil pipeline network. The strikes are said to have struck key oil pumping and dispatching plants, one of them a hub in Tatarstan and caused large scale fires. Other reported similar attacks involved the Unecha station in Bryansk and the Nikolskoye station in Tambov which were all categorised as critical components of the pipeline system. The operation has disrupted the crude oil supplies to Hungary and Slovakia via the southern branch.
The Ukrainian troops drove the targeted attacks on Sunday night that seems to be an escalated campaign to destabilize the Russian energy-export economy and fuel logistics by targeting strategic oil infrastructure.