Ukraine war briefing: row between Kyiv and Hungary over pipeline carrying Russian oil deepens

A row between Ukraine and Hungary over a pipeline carrying Russian oil appeared to deepen on Wednesday, after Budapest said it had dispatched a delegation for talks, only for Kyiv to deny the group had any official status. Hungary and neighbouring Slovakia accuse Kyiv of deliberately delaying reopening the Druzhba pipeline pumping Russian oil to the two landlocked states. Ukraine says the pipeline was damaged by Russian strikes in January. Hungary’s Energy Minister Gabor Czepek said the group, including representatives from Slovakia, would aim to hold talks on reopening Druzhba.

Ukrainian anti-drone experts have begun working in three Gulf states targeted by Iranian attacks, president Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday. Kyiv has sought to leverage its expertise in downing Russian drones to help the Gulf nations, which are being attacked with the same Iranian-designed Shahed drones that Russia fires on Ukraine.

G7 nations Wednesday rejected easing punitive measures against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine as the Middle East war wreaks havoc on global oil markets, France’s President Emmanuel Macron said.

Russian forces were attacking an oil pumping station in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region with drones for the second day in a row, the CEO of Ukrainian state oil and gas firm Naftogaz said on Wednesday. In a statement, Serhiy Koretskyi said the attacks are aimed at preventing the alternative supply of non-Russian oil to Europe, adding that Russia has attacked Naftogaz infrastructure more than 30 times this year.

Russia’s foreign ministry on Wednesday condemned a deadly Ukrainian strike on the western Russian city of Bryansk as a “terrorist attack” and accused Britain, whose missiles it said were used, of overstepping international legal norms. In a statement, the ministry said the strike was intended to derail efforts toward a peace process and fuel an escalation of the conflict.

Bryansk regional governor Alexander Bogomaz said on Wednesday one more person had died in the attack, bringing the death toll to seven. Bogomaz said earlier that Tuesday’s strike had injured 42 people, without saying what was hit.

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s envoy met US negotiators in Florida on Wednesday, the United States said, in their first talks since the start of the US-Israeli war on Iran. The talks come after the US earlier this week lifted some sanctions on Russian oil – imposed because of Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine – to ease prices amid the Iran war.

Team Ukraine have launched a ­stinging attack on the International Paralympic Committee and Winter Paralympics organisers, claiming they have been under “systemic pressure” to reduce their presence at the Milano Cortina Games. The Ukraine National Paralympic Committee has made four specific allegations against the IPC and the Milano Cortina organisers, alleging mistreatment of its athletes and a “systematic” attempt to remove flags from the team base and spectators.