Oil deliveries from Russia to Europe through the territory of Ukraine resumed after almost a week's break.

This was announced on Wednesday, August 10, by Igor Demin, adviser to the president of Transneft.

“The pumps are working, they turned on at 16:00, reaching the operating pressure mode within 15 minutes ... The Ukrainian side confirmed that it had received payment for oil transit and was ready to start working,” RIA Novosti quotes Demin.

Earlier it became known that the Hungarian company MOL and the Slovak Slovnaft paid transit fees for the transportation of oil through the southern branch of the Druzhba oil pipeline.

The Russian side also agreed with this decision.

Sanctions failure

Recall that oil via the Druzhba pipeline comes directly from Russia to several EU countries.

The northern branch of the highway runs through the territory of Belarus and allows you to provide Poland and Germany with raw materials, while the southern one goes through the territory of Ukraine towards Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

On August 4, the pumping of oil along the southern direction of Druzhba completely stopped after Kyiv did not receive money for transit from Moscow.

As Igor Demin explained, the Ukrainian side provides services for the transportation of energy carriers from Russia only on the terms of 100% payment, but at the end of July the payment did not go through due to new EU sanctions.

“Gazprombank, which services payments, notified us that the payment was returned due to the entry into force of the EU regulations, that is, the seventh package of sanctions,” Demin said. 

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As a result of the introduction of new anti-Russian restrictions by the EU, European banks can no longer independently make decisions on making cross-border payments from the Russian Federation.

To do this, organizations need to obtain permission from the national authorized government agency, which would confirm that the transaction is not among the prohibited ones.

Meanwhile, EU regulators have not yet developed an appropriate procedure for interacting with banks.

According to experts, this is not the first time that sanctions have run counter to the interests of the European countries themselves.

Under these conditions, Western states increasingly prefer to openly compromise and begin to soften or circumvent their own restrictions, Nikolai Pereslavsky, an employee of the Department of Economic and Financial Research at the CMS Institute, said in a conversation with RT.

“In this case, it is rather a PR attack on the positions of the EU and Ukraine.

There are several scenarios for the further development of events: either the countries of the southern branch of "Friendship" completely take on the payment for transit, or Russia will compensate them for this (with money on special accounts or fuel), or the sanctions will be revised.

The latter option would be easier for everyone, and it is possible that the issue of this will be raised in the near future, ”Pereslavsky noted.

At the same time, Ukraine could have deliberately taken advantage of the West's sanctions intricacies to undermine Russia's reputation as a reliable supplier of oil to the EU.

Vladimir Bruter, an expert at the International Institute for Humanitarian and Political Studies, shared this opinion with RT.

“Kyiv is provoking the parties.

It is possible that the stoppage of transit was an attempt to provoke Russia into an inadequate reaction, that is, to force Moscow to act more abruptly than it is now.

But Russia did not respond to the provocation, as it is already accustomed to such actions and turns a blind eye to them,” Bruter suggested.

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pressure lever

Recall that at the end of May, the European Union agreed on a partial embargo on oil imports from Russia.

The restrictions are due to come into effect in December, but will only apply to shipping raw materials.

In turn, the supply of pipeline oil was withdrawn from the sanctions, as Hungary insisted on this.

According to Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a ban on the pumping of Russian raw materials through the pipeline would be tantamount to an "atomic bomb" for the republic's economy.

As a result, Budapest blocked all attempts by the EU to completely abandon oil purchases from Moscow.

The position of the Hungarian authorities caused discontent in Kyiv.

Against this background, the Ukrainian leadership even began to make statements about a possible special blocking of the southern branch of the Druzhba oil pipeline.

As Elena Zerkal, adviser to the head of the Ukrainian Ministry of Energy, noted in May, such a step would be worth taking, since Budapest does not want to refuse to purchase Russian oil.

“Ukraine has an excellent leverage in its hands – this is the Druzhba oil pipeline… It would be very appropriate if something happened to it.

But again, it is in the hands of the government and the president to decide political issues, do we really want to speak with Orban in the language that he understands, ”Zerkal said at the Kiev Security Forum.

According to Nikolai Pereslavsky, such statements and stopping transit can be used by Kyiv as an attempt to put pressure on the West to receive more financial assistance.

So, at the moment, the Ukrainian authorities are demanding $9 billion a month from Western countries to cover the budget deficit, but the money is not coming in the right amount.

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In early July, the German Institute for the World Economy in Kiel (IfW) calculated that the total volume of military, financial and humanitarian aid promised to Kyiv exceeded $82 billion. Ukrainian authorities still have not received part of the previously promised funds.

“What is striking is the large gap between the support promised and the support provided.

Both military and financial deliveries still fall short of what Ukraine demands and what was promised to the country,” the IfW study says.

At the same time, according to Nikolai Pereslavsky, the intentional stoppage of oil pumping through Druzhba, even if the transit is paid for, can cause a sharp reaction not only in Hungary, but also in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, which actively support Kyiv.

A similar point of view is shared by Vladimir Bruter.

As the expert noted, such a scenario would force Europe to reconsider its attitude towards the events taking place in Ukraine.

“The closure of Druzhba would already be regarded as an extremely unfriendly act in relation to Hungary, the country that joined the sanctions.

As a result, Budapest may be seriously offended by the EU, which may eventually lead to splits in European relations and their common position towards Russia, ”concluded the specialist.