Lost in politics: EU mission to Ukraine pipeline falls in information vacuum

BRUSSELS: Weeks after a European Union mission arrived in Ukraine to check a blocked pipeline at the center of a diplomatic showdown, the EU said Tuesday it had no information on the experts’ whereabouts — at least officially.
The mission has been shrouded in secrecy since it was announced last month — to a point where its fate has become a running joke in Brussels.
“It is not a mystical mission,” European Commission spokeswoman Anna-Kaisa Itkonen told a news conference Tuesday, when pressed to say whether the experts tasked with assessing damage to the Druzhba pipeline really existed.
The mission was announced in March as Brussels sought to deescalate a row between Kyiv and Budapest and unlock a 90 billion euro ($104 billion) loan for Ukraine blocked by Hungary.
Ukraine has said the pipeline, which pumps Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia, was damaged by Russian strikes on Ukrainian territory in January and needs time to be fixed.
But Hungary, whose leader Viktor Orban fosters close ties with the Kremlin, has accused Kyiv of deliberately delaying the reopening, and held up the EU funding in return.
As the nationalist Hungarian prime minister — who faces a tight election battle this week — refused to budge, the EU experts disappeared from the radar.
Officially, the commission has confirmed only that a small team arrived in Kyiv about three weeks ago.
“I do not have information of their whereabouts, where they might be,” Itkonen said, later maintaining that Brussels was not offering updates because of the mission’s dangerous nature.
“This is not a tourist trip to Moominvalley. We’re talking about a war zone there,” she added, referring to the green homeland of the hippo?like protagonists of a Finnish comic strip.
Speaking on condition of anonymity however, EU officials have been more blunt. The fact finding mission is being stalled by Kyiv, an official told AFP.
Yet, there appears to be little appetite to either force Ukraine’s hand — or publicize the hold-up.
Most of the EU’s 27 nations have weaned themselves off Russian oil in a bid to sap Moscow’s war chest — and resent Hungary and neighboring Slovakia for still buying the stuff.
Hungary has alternatives, such as getting oil via another pipeline through Croatia, says the EU official.
But Orban has turned the issue into election campaign fodder, portraying Kyiv and Brussels as Hungary’s foes.
In Brussels, where Orban’s obstruction and coziness with Moscow have long caused irritation, many hope the ballot will bring about change, according to observers.
That might explain the commission’s radio silence, said Andreas Bock of the European Council on Foreign Relations, a think tank.
“Brussels does not want to play into Orban’s hands just a few days before the election by saying that Ukraine is blocking the mission, as that would align with Orban’s narrative that Kyiv is threatening Hungary,” he suggested.