New Delhi, March 6 -- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that he would prefer not to repair a damaged oil pipeline that delivers Russian crude to Central Europe despite rising tensions with neighboring Hungary and Slovakia over interruptions to oil flows.

Russian oil shipments to Hungary and Slovakia have been halted since Jan. 27 after what Ukrainian officials say were Russian drone attacks that damaged the Druzhba pipeline, which crosses Ukrainian territory.

The populist leaders of Hungary and Slovakia, which unlike most European Union countries continue to import Russian fossil fuels, have accused Ukraine of deliberately holding up supplies. Kyiv says that continuous Russian strikes mean that carrying out repairs p...