Ukraine: Russian oil to Hungary, Slovakia has restarted

Deutsche Welle · 🇩🇪 public Germany · Apr 22, 2026 · 592 words · By Mark Hallam

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What to know about Ukraine: Russian oil to Hungary, Slovakia has restarted

Ukraine: Russian oil to Hungary, Slovakia has restarted April 22, 2026Oil from Russia bound for Hungary and Slovakia, via the Druzhba pipeline that first goes through Belarus and Ukraine, started flowing again on Wednesday after an interruption lasting months.

Claims checked 10

Techniques found 0

Topics 0

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Left coverage

Left0%

Center83%

Right17%

6 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

Why it matters

The stoppage had been a source of severe tension between Ukraine and Hungary and Slovakia, which intensified amid the added strain on energy prices caused by the war in Iran and the wider Middle East.

Common ground

Restarting supplies should also unlock a massive €90 billion EU loan for Ukraine originally agreed in December, which Hungary and Slovakia had held up at the most recent EU leaders' summit because of the halt in oil supplies.

Perspective signals

No major persuasion pattern has been attached yet, so the source, headline, and evidence should carry most of the weight for readers.

Follow-up questions

What concrete event or decision sits underneath the headline: Ukraine: Russian oil to Hungary, Slovakia has restarted?
What evidence would most clearly confirm or weaken the claim that Magyar only set to take office next month?
What should readers watch for in the next update to know whether the story is changing?

open_in_new Read the original article: https://www.dw.com/en/russian-oil-flows-to-eu-through-ukraine-again/a-76894770?m…

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 10 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

check_circle Corroborated 6

help Insufficient Evidence 2

info Single Source 2

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Claim 1: “Magyar only set to take office next month.”

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

No evidence was found in the provided search results regarding Peter Magyar taking office in May 2026.

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Claim 2: “MOL expects the first crude oil shipments following the restart of the Ukrainain section of the pipeline system to arrive in Hungary and Slovakia by tomorrow at the latest”

CORROBORATED

The Budapest Times and commonspace.eu both report that MOL expected the first shipments to reach Hungary and Slovakia by Thursday at the latest.

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web search NEUTRAL — MOL Plc., also known as MOL Group, is a Hungarian multinational oil and gas company headquartered in Budapest, Hungary. Members of MOL Group include among others the Croatian and Slovak formerly state…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MOL_(company)

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web search NEUTRAL — MOL expects that the first crude oil shipments following the restart of the Ukrainian section of the pipeline system will arrive in Hungary and Slovakia by Thursday at the latest.
https://www.budapesttimes.hu/hungary/first-oil-shipments-to-…

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web search NEUTRAL — Hungarian oil company MOL said Ukraine had informed it that deliveries of Russian crude had restarted through the pipeline. An industry source cited by Reuters said that the first shipments expected t…
https://www.commonspace.eu/news/russian-oil-resumes-through-…

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Claim 3: “In March, both leaders refused to approve the EU starting its multi-year, €90 billion (roughly $105 billion) loan package for Kyiv that was originally hashed out in December.”

CORROBORATED

BBC News and other web results confirm the existence of the €90bn loan and that Hungary and Slovakia (along with the Czech Republic) refused to participate or blocked it.

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web search NEUTRAL — The €90bn loan to Ukraine agreed by EU leaders was reached as an alternative to using €200 billion of frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine's war effort - more on those assets here.
https://www.bbc.com/news/live/ce8np3pnljdt

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web search NEUTRAL — The Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia refused to participate in the €90 billion financing scheme for Ukraine. This was announced on February 4 by the press service of the Council of the European Un…
https://en.iz.ru/en/2037330/2026-02-04/hungary-czech-republi…

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web search NEUTRAL — The €90 billion loan is less than expected, but it will cover the lion's share of Ukraine's needs for the next two years. Russian assets will remain frozen in Belgium's Euroclear and could potentially…
https://newsukraine.rbc.ua/analytics/plan-b-for-ukraine-why-…

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Claim 4: “Restarting supplies should also unlock a massive €90 billion EU loan for Ukraine originally agreed in December, which Hungary and Slovakia had held up at the most recent EU leaders' summit because of the halt in oil supplies.”

CORROBORATED

Web search results explicitly state that Hungary blocked the €90 billion EU loan for Ukraine until oil transit via the Druzhba pipeline resumed.

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web search NEUTRAL — The delivery of oil was halted on 20 April 2019 due to high concentrations of organic chloride found in the pipeline. These chemical compounds contaminated the pipeline and equipment in Russia and Eur…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Druzhba_pipeline

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web search NEUTRAL — “We are blocking the €90 billion EU loan for Ukraine until oil transit to Hungary via the Druzhba pipeline resumes,” Mr. Szijjarto wrote.Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic agreed to the plan on …
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/20/world/europe/euro-loan-uk…

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web search NEUTRAL — For a long time, Hungary blocked a loan to Ukraine due to the halt in the transit of Russian oil through the “Druzhba” oil pipeline. Ukraine explained that this happened due to Russian attacks, but Hu…
https://babel.ua/en/news/126582-the-eu-has-revealed-what-the…

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Claim 5: “Slovak Economy Minister Denisa Sakova said on Facebook earlier on Wednesday that the government in Bratislava anticipated the first crude oil deliveries from Russia to reach the country by Thursday.”

SINGLE SOURCE

While the general event of oil resuming is corroborated, the specific evidence provided for claim 5 contains only general Wikipedia entries about Slovakia's geography and history, not the statement by Minister Denisa Sakova.

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web search NEUTRAL — Slovakia, [b] officially the Slovak Republic, [c] is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the west, and …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slovakia

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web search NEUTRAL — Discover Slovakia. Explore Slovakia facts, culture, history & comprehensive country profile with maps, statistics & research resources for students & travelers.
https://www.countryreports.org/country/slovakia/fact.htm

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web search NEUTRAL — 3 days ago · Slovakia is a landlocked country of central Europe. It is roughly coextensive with the historic region of Slovakia, the easternmost of the two territories that from 1918 to 1992 constitut…
https://www.britannica.com/place/Slovakia

info

Claim 6: “The oil deliveries came to a halt in January of this year, with Ukraine saying that a Russian drone strike had damaged the pipeline and meant that lengthy repairs were necessary.”

SINGLE SOURCE

The evidence provided for claim 6 consists of Wikipedia entries about the Russian language and alphabet, which are irrelevant to the claim about pipeline damage in January 2026.

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web search NEUTRAL — Russian[d] is an East Slavic language belonging to the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family. It is one of the four extant East Slavic languages, [e] and is the native language of t…
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_language

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web search NEUTRAL — Russian Alphabet Table. Use this table to help you learn the Russian alphabet. It would also be useful to learn how to say the Russian letters.
https://www.russianlessons.net/lessons/lesson1_alphabet.php

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web search NEUTRAL — Russian language, principal state and cultural language of Russia. Russian is the primary language of the overwhelming majority of people in Russia and is also used as a second language in other forme…
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Russian-language

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Claim 7: “Landlocked Hungary and Slovakia are exempt from EU sanctions on Russian oil deliveries imposed since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine because of their pronounced dependence on Moscow as a supplier.”

CORROBORATED

Multiple sources confirm that Hungary and Slovakia received exemptions from EU sanctions on Russian oil due to their dependence on the Druzhba pipeline.

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web search NEUTRAL — After receiving exemptions to sanctions, Hungary and Slovakia have until recently been receiving Russian oil via the Druzhba pipeline, which carries Russian oil to Central Europe via Ukraine.
https://www.rferl.org/a/eu-sanctions-russia-hungary-slovakia…

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web search NEUTRAL — The EU exemption legislation has no clear end date, meaning that MOL — the sole refiner in both Hungary and Slovakia and the last company in Europe still importing Russian crude oil — can legally cont…
https://energyandcleanair.org/publication/the-last-mile-phas…

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web search NEUTRAL — BRUSSELS — Hungary and Slovakia held up progress on new Russia sanctions Monday, saying they wanted to see a separate proposal to ban Russian gas dropped first. In a statement during a meeting of fore…
https://www.politico.eu/article/hungary-slovakia-block-new-r…

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Claim 8: “Longstanding leader Orban... lost in a landslide to Peter Magyar earlier this month.”

INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE

No evidence was found in the provided search results to support the claim that Viktor Orban lost to Peter Magyar.

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Claim 9: “Oil from Russia bound for Hungary and Slovakia, via the Druzhba pipeline that first goes through Belarus and Ukraine, started flowing again on Wednesday after an interruption lasting months.”

CORROBORATED

Multiple independent sources (Euronews and other web results) confirm that Russian oil shipments to Slovakia/Hungary via the Druzhba pipeline resumed on April 23 after a multi-month suspension.

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web search NEUTRAL — The Druzhba–Adria Pipeline Integration Project was a proposal that was considered in the 2000s to extend the pipeline to pass through Hungary and Croatia to reach the Adriatic Sea at the deep-water po…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Druzhba_pipeline

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web search NEUTRAL — Supplies of Russian oil to Slovakia via the Druzhba pipeline resumed at 02:00 on 23 April after being suspended for nearly three months.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/russian-oil-begins-flowi…

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web search NEUTRAL — The flow of Russian oil to Slovakia through the Druzhba pipeline that crosses Ukraine has resumed, Slovak Economy Minister Denisa Saková said on Thursday morning.
https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/04/23/russian-oil-fl…

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Claim 10: “Hungary's oil group MOL said in a statement on Wednesday that the Ukrainian operator of the pipeline, Ukrtransnafta, had informed it that it had started receiving crude oil from Belarus.”

CORROBORATED

Euronews and RT World News both report that MOL stated Ukrtransnafta informed them that crude oil from Belarus began flowing into Ukraine at noon on Wednesday.

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web search NEUTRAL — Hungary’s energy giant MOL said on Wednesday it was informed by the operator of the Ukrainian section of the pipeline, Ukrtransnafta, that "the receipt of crude oil from Belarus via the Druzhba pipeli…
https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2026/04/23/russian-oil-fl…

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web search NEUTRAL — Published 22 Apr, 2026 12:27 | Updated 23 Apr, 2026 08:00.The company said in a statement that Ukrainian operator JSC Ukrtransnafta has informed it that Ukraine began receiving crude from Belarus via …
https://www.rt.com/news/638920-hungary-ukraine-druzhba-oil/

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web search NEUTRAL — Ukrtransnafta informed Hungary's MOL that Ukraine began receiving oil from Belarus through the Druzhba pipeline at noon on Wednesday. MOL said in a statement it expected the first oil deliveries after…
https://interfax.com/newsroom/top-stories/117284/

info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.