Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico announced on Thursday, 2 December, that the coalition government would discuss retaliatory measures against Ukraine for halting the flow of Russian gas through its territory to Slovakia.<\/p>\n
In a video message posted on Facebook, Fico stated that the Smer party would consider cutting off electricity supplies to Ukraine, reducing aid to Ukrainian refugees, and demanding the restoration of gas transits or compensation for losses Slovakia claims to have suffered due to the cessation of Russian gas flows.<\/p>\n
Russian gas exports via Soviet-era pipelines through Ukraine ceased on New Year’s Day when the transit contract between Russia and Ukraine expired, marking the end of Moscow’s decades-long dominance of European energy markets.<\/p>\n
Slovakia has alternative sources of gas, but Fico emphasized that the country would lose its transit revenues and incur additional transit fees to import non-Russian gas. He also warned that gas and electricity prices in Europe would rise as a result of Ukraine’s actions.<\/p>\n
Fico announced that a Slovak delegation would discuss the situation in Brussels next Tuesday, after which his ruling coalition would consider retaliating against Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s actions, which he labeled as \u2018sabotage\u2019.<\/p>\n
\u2018I declare that (my Smer-SSD party) is ready to discuss and agree in the coalition on the issues of stopping the supply of electricity and significantly reducing support for Ukrainian citizens in Slovakia,\u2019 Fico stated.<\/p>\n
The Slovak leader argued that the only alternative for a \u2018sovereign Slovakia\u2019 was to demand the restoration of transit or mechanisms to compensate for the loss of around 500 million euros in public finances.<\/p>\n
Last week, Zelensky accused Fico of opening \u2018a second energy front against Ukraine at Russia’s behest\u2019.<\/p>\n
Slovakia’s majority state-owned gas transit network operator, Eustream, reported revenues of \u20ac158 million and an after-tax profit of \u20ac25 million in the six months to 31 January, the latest period reported on its website.<\/p>\n
State-owned Slovak gas importer SPP, which supplies about two-thirds of Slovak demand, stated on Wednesday that replacing all Russian gas this year would result in additional costs of about 90 million euros, mainly due to transit fees.<\/p>\n
Slovakia, which borders Ukraine to the east, exported 2.4 million megawatt hours of electricity in the first 11 months of 2024 to Ukraine, which has been suffering from electricity shortages due to Russian bombardment, according to data from the Slovak grid operator.<\/p>\n
Fico, who visited Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on 22 December, said last week that Slovakia would consider reciprocal measures against Ukraine, such as halting back-up electricity supplies, if Kyiv stops gas transit from 1 January.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico announced on Thursday, 2 December, that the coalition government would discuss retaliatory measures against Ukraine for halting the flow of Russian gas through its territory to Slovakia. In a video message posted on Facebook, Fico stated that the Smer party would consider cutting off electricity supplies to Ukraine, reducing aid […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7074,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4543,4541,4538,4540,2375,4539,2374,4542,822,4015],"class_list":["post-7073","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","tag-electricity-supplies","tag-eustream","tag-gas-transit","tag-retaliatory-measures","tag-robert-fico","tag-russian-gas","tag-slovakia","tag-spp","tag-ukraine","tag-volodymyr-zelensky"],"yoast_head":"\n