KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine has completed repairs on a damaged oil pipeline and is preparing to resume flows, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday, while warning that there is no guarantee Russia will not target the infrastructure again.
Repairs to the Druzhba pipeline became a contentious issue, delaying approval of a major 90 billion euro ($106 billion) EU loan intended to support Ukraine’s military and economic needs over the next two years. Zelenskyy said repairing the pipeline was linked to freeing the funds, which had been blocked by Hungary and Slovakia.
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European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, second right, speaks with from left, Slovenia's Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon, Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel and Cypriot Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos during a round table meeting of EU foreign ministers at the European Council building in Luxembourg, Tuesday, April 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas arrives for a meeting of EU foreign ministers at the European Council building in Luxembourg, Tuesday, April 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks next to a drone after he received the International Four Freedoms Award, in Middelburg, Netherlands, Thursday, April 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
FILE - A general view of a pumping station at the end of the Druzhba oil pipeline in the east German refinery PCK in Schwedt, Jan. 10, 2007. (AP Photo/Sven Kaestner, File)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrives for the International Four Freedoms Award ceremony in Middelburg, Netherlands, Thursday, April 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
But top EU officials are now cautiously optimistic that the massive loan scheme might be approved as soon as Wednesday, ending months of political deadlock.
“Ukraine has completed repair work on the section of the Druzhba oil pipeline that was damaged by a Russian strike. The pipeline can resume operation,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X. “Although no one can currently guarantee that Russia will not repeat attacks on the pipeline infrastructure, our specialists have ensured the basic conditions for restoring the operation of the pipeline system and equipment.”
“We connect this with the unblocking of the European support package for Ukraine, which had already been approved by the European Council,” he added.
Russian oil supplies to Hungary and Slovakia have been halted for two months after what Ukrainian officials say were Russian drone attacks that damaged the pipeline, which crosses Ukrainian territory, and that continuous strikes risk the lives of technicians trying to repair it.
The war in Ukraine that began in February 2022 with Russia's invasion of Ukraine has killed thousands, forced millions to flee their homes and turned cities into rubble.
Before being unseated by centrist challenger Péter Magyar, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had threatened to cut gas supplies to Ukraine. Both Hungary and Slovakia accused Kyiv of deliberately obstructing Russian deliveries.
Zelenskyy said earlier this month he is reluctant to allow Russian oil to continue transiting through his country.
Speaking to reporters in Luxembourg after chairing a meeting of EU foreign ministers, the bloc's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said the loan saga had taken many twists and turns. “We expect an agreement in 24 hours, so I don’t want to jinx it,” she said.
EU envoys are due to meet Wednesday in hopes of ending the standoff.
European Council President Antonio Costa, who will chair a summit of EU leaders starting Thursday, took to social media to thank Zelenskyy “for delivering, as agreed: repairing the Druzhba pipeline and restoring its operation.”
The 27-nation EU had originally intended to use Russian assets frozen in Europe as collateral for the loan. But that option was blocked by Belgium, where the bulk of the frozen assets are held.
In December, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia agreed not to stop their EU partners from borrowing the money on international markets as long as the three countries did not have to take part in the scheme.
But Orbán angered the other 24 countries by later reneging on that deal over the pipeline dispute and as campaigning heated up ahead of elections earlier this month, which the veteran Hungarian leader lost in a landslide.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, second right, speaks with from left, Slovenia's Foreign Minister Tanja Fajon, Luxembourg's Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel and Cypriot Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos during a round table meeting of EU foreign ministers at the European Council building in Luxembourg, Tuesday, April 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas arrives for a meeting of EU foreign ministers at the European Council building in Luxembourg, Tuesday, April 21, 2026. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks next to a drone after he received the International Four Freedoms Award, in Middelburg, Netherlands, Thursday, April 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
FILE - A general view of a pumping station at the end of the Druzhba oil pipeline in the east German refinery PCK in Schwedt, Jan. 10, 2007. (AP Photo/Sven Kaestner, File)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrives for the International Four Freedoms Award ceremony in Middelburg, Netherlands, Thursday, April 16, 2026. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong)
LONDON (AP) — Apple's next CEO John Ternus is a company veteran who rose through the iPhone maker's hardware engineering ranks but until now has maintained a low profile.
Ternus will take over as chief executive in September for Tim Cook, who turned Apple into a $4 trillion tech colossus during his 15-year run after the death of co-founder Steve Jobs.
Ternus faces challenges that will force him to step out of his comfort zone in hardware engineering. Beyond finding ways to keep Apple competitive in the artificial intelligence race, he will need to navigate supply chain questions and relationships with figures like President Donald Trump, who offered public praise for his predecessor on Tuesday.
Although Cook is handing over the CEO reins at Apple, he is widely expected to help the Cupertino, California, company maintain a good relationship with Trump after he shifts over to his new role as executive chairman.
Ternus, 50, has spent almost his entire career with Apple. He joined the company 25 years ago and has spent the past five years overseeing the engineering that underlies the iPhone, iPad and Mac.
It made him the prime contender to succeed Cook who on Monday, when Apple announced the change in leadership, hailed Ternus as “without question the right person to lead Apple into the future.”
Ternus worked on some of Apple's signature products under Cook, including the Apple Watch, AirPods and Apple Vision Pro. He was also involved in the MacBook Neo, "arguably one of the most disruptive products” that Apple has released in a while, said Ben Wood, chief analyst at CCS Insight.
“This mentorship will undoubtedly ensure a smooth transition, and initially, I expect very few changes to the company’s strategy,” Wood said.
The appointment appeared to be carefully timed, following Apple's 50th anniversary celebrations and ahead of its annual WWDC developers conference in June.
The change also arrives at a pivotal time for the company. While Cook led Apple through an iPhone-fueled era of prosperity, Apple has fallen behind in the AI race. Apple has stumbled in its efforts to deliver new features built on AI, as was promised nearly two years ago.
“The challenge for the new CEO is really to make sure Apple is able to crack AI as the new user interface and reinvent human machine interaction," Forrester Research analyst Thomas Husson said.
Wood says attention at WWDC will be on the new CEO's AI strategy, and what the company will do next after turning earlier this year to Google — an early leader in the AI race — to help make the iPhone’s virtual assistant Siri more conversational and versatile.
“A big strategic question is how far Apple will invest in building its own AI platform versus relying on other companies’ models and platforms,” Wood said.
Apples shares fell more than 2% during Tuesday's trading, signaling some investors may have doubts about whether Ternus's focus on hardware products has prepared him for the AI challenges he will confront as the company's next CEO.
But building a device well-suited for the AI age is among the most critical missions as technology makes its most significant pivot since Jobs unveiled the first iPhone in 2007. That's why some analysts believe Apple's board saw Ternus' hardware background as a key advantage as it tries to develop an AI-powered device that could eventually supplant the iPhone as its top-selling product.
That is something that Jony Ive, the former Apple design guru, who shaped the look of the iPhone, is trying to do after his startup, io Products , was acquired last year for $6.5 billion by ChatGPT maker OpenAI.
Apple also faces a turbulent market amid geopolitical uncertainty, Wood said.
"The consumer electronics industry faces a perfect storm, with memory chip shortages and the war in the Middle East having widespread implications for consumer confidence. Apple will also need to decide how much it wants to continue its deep reliance on China for manufacturing,” he said.
Being Apple CEO will also require soft skills including developing relationships with important figures. Cook cultivated ties with Trump as he navigated the company through business challenges including Trump's trade and tariff war targeting countries in Asia, where Apple has extensive manufacturing supply chains.
Trump noted his relationship with Cook in a social media post on Tuesday morning, writing that “it began with a phone call” at the beginning of his first term, when Cook asked for help with “a fairly large problem that only I, as President, could fix.”
“That was the beginning of a long and very nice relationship,” Trump said.
Ternus is not well known outside of the Apple universe. He joined the company in July 2001, according to his LinkedIn profile, which does not have any posts.
Before joining Apple, he spent four years as a mechanical engineer at Virtual Research Systems. He graduated in 1997 from the University of Pennsylvania, where he was a member of the swim team and for his senior project developed a mechanical feeding arm for quadriplegics controlled by head movements.
In a 2024 commencement speech to the university's engineering school, Ternus said he was intimidated when he first started working at Apple and wasn't sure he belonged. He learned to “always assume you’re as smart as anyone else in the room but never assume you know as much as they do.”
“There will always be new skills to master and new people to learn from,” he said.
Ternus said in Apple's announcement that he was "humbled to step into this role, and I promise to lead with the values and vision that have come to define this special place for half a century.”
AP Technology Writer Michael Liedtke contributed to this story from Berkeley, California.
FILE - John Ternus, Apple's V.P. of Hardware Engineering, discuss the latest development for the iPad Pro during an event to announce new products Tuesday Oct. 30, 2018, in the Brooklyn borough of New York. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)
FILE - Apple's John Ternus speaks during an announcement of new products at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, Calif., Monday, June 5, 2017. (AP Photo/Marcio Jose Sanchez, File)
