Russian crude deliveries to Hungary and Slovakia were suspended on 18 August after a Ukrainian drone strike destroyed the Nikolskoye pumping station on the Druzhba pipeline in Russia’s Tambov region, according to Ukraine’s General Staff. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said flows stopped when a transformer station on the line was hit and warned Budapest faces an undefined outage while repairs are assessed. The Druzhba network is a major conduit supplying Central Europe with Russian oil. Slovakia’s pipeline operator Transpetrol confirmed that shipments to Bratislava have also ceased, while Kazakhstan’s energy authorities said crude bound for Germany through a northern branch of the system continues to move unhindered. Russian Deputy Energy Minister Pavel Sorokin told Hungarian officials that technicians are working to restore service, but provided no timetable. The attack deepens an energy infrastructure battle that has intensified in recent days. Industry sources say drone strikes earlier in August forced Lukoil’s Volgograd refinery and the Syzran refinery to halt processing, curbing Russia’s refining capacity. Kyiv has stepped up attacks on Russian oil assets it views as funding Moscow’s war effort. Moscow responded overnight on 19 August with cruise-missile and drone raids on energy facilities in Ukraine’s Poltava region, igniting large fires at gas transport and oil sites, the Ukrainian energy ministry said. Russia’s defence ministry claimed it hit a refinery supplying Ukrainian forces. The exchanges highlight growing risks to oil and gas infrastructure across the region as the conflict escalates.