Naftogaz CEO Serhii Koretskyi presented a Druzhba pipeline repair plan to EU Deputy Ambassador Gediminas Navickas on 19 March1. President Zelenskyy pledged a 1.5-month timeline for completion. The EU will fund the work.
The repair plan follows the template Zelenskyy used to unblock Hungary's veto on the €90 billion EU loan: accept the obligation to fix the pipeline, secure European money to do it, and attach an inspection mechanism that validates Ukraine's account of the damage. By presenting the plan to an EU interlocutor rather than negotiating bilaterally with Bratislava, Kyiv keeps Brussels as the arbiter — and prevents Fico from claiming a bilateral concession.
The 1.5-month completion target places repairs around early May — just after the EU's 25 April deadline banning new short-term Russian LNG contracts. For Slovakia, which depends almost entirely on Druzhba crude for its primary refinery, the repair schedule is the difference between a managed energy transition and a supply crisis heading into summer. For Kyiv, every week the pipeline remains shut reduces Russian transit revenue, but also sustains the political Coalition between Fico and Orbán that has proven willing to hold EU decisions hostage over energy.
EU funding for the repairs carries an implicit diplomatic verdict. Brussels is paying to fix infrastructure it accepts was damaged by a Russian drone strike — a position that contradicts Fico's insistence that no damage exists2. The financial commitment aligns EU institutions with Kyiv's account and narrows Bratislava's ability to reframe the dispute as Ukrainian obstruction. The broader question is whether the repair, once complete, defuses the Central European energy bloc permanently or merely resets the clock for the next round of leverage before the full pipeline gas ban takes effect in September 2027.
