Slovakia said it began receiving crude oil through the Druzhba pipeline early on Thursday, with supplies expected later to reach Hungary, which had blocked European aid to Ukraine over a months-long outage that Kyiv blamed on a Russian air strike.

Robert Fico, Slovakia`s Prime Minister, said he welcomed the reopening ⁠of the Druzhba pipeline but that he believed this proved that the blockage had been politically motivated. "I believe that a serious relationship between Ukraine and the European Union was established yesterday and today through the agreements reached regarding the loan and the opening of the Druzhba pipeline", Fico told reporters on Thursday.

"I think that the opening of the Druzhba pipeline at 2 ⁠a.m. this morning confirms that the Druzhba pipeline was not damaged... It wasn`t damaged, and the Druzhba pipeline and oil were used as tools in a geopolitical struggle".

There has been no external mission to check on the damage but the EU has ⁠backed Ukraine's account that it was hit by Russian forces.

Moscow has blamed Kyiv for stopping Russian oil flowing through the pipeline without directly addressing the allegation that it had been damaged during a Russian attack. There was ⁠no immediate comment from Kyiv to Fico's allegation.