Ukrainian drone and missile strikes on 18 Aug disabled a transformer station on the south branch of the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline, cutting Russian crude supplies to Hungary and Slovakia. Budapest, which relies on Druzhba for most of its oil imports, confirmed the stoppage through Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, while pipeline operator Transpetrol reported parallel interruptions in Slovakia. Flows were briefly restored on 20 Aug, but new attacks late on 21 Aug hit the Unecha pumping station in Russia’s Bryansk region and set the Novoshakhtinsk refinery—the largest in southern Russia—ablaze. Hungary and Slovakia said the latest damage could halt deliveries for at least five days and again appealed to Moscow and Kyiv for repairs. In a joint letter to the European Commission on 22 Aug, Szijjarto and his Slovak counterpart Juraj Blanar warned that without Druzhba their countries have no viable alternative supply route. The pipeline shipped about 95,000 barrels a day to Hungary last year, earning the Kremlin an estimated $400 million a month, according to industry and government figures. Repeated Ukrainian strikes on Russian refineries have compounded the disruption. Fires at Novoshakhtinsk and other plants have pushed wholesale prices for A-95 petrol in Russia 55 percent higher since January, prompting Moscow to extend a domestic fuel-export ban in an effort to contain shortages. The energy shock is reverberating politically. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban shared a handwritten note in which U.S. President Donald Trump said he was “very angry” about Ukraine’s attacks on Druzhba, highlighting trans-Atlantic tensions even as Washington presses Kyiv and Moscow to reach a negotiated settlement.