Slovakia will stop emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine if Kyiv does not resume the transit of Russian oil to the country via the Druzhba pipeline by February 23, said Robert Fico.
“The President of Ukraine refuses to understand our peaceful approach and, since we do not support the war, behaves maliciously towards Slovakia. First, he stopped gas supplies to Slovakia, causing us damage of 500 million euros per year. Now he has stopped oil supplies, causing us further losses and creating logistical difficulties,” wrote the Prime Minister of Slovakia on social media X, as quoted by Meduza.
Following Fico, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban made similar demands. He noted that the government is coordinating its actions with the Slovaks and is ready to stop electricity supplies.
Orban claims to have reliable information about the suitability of the Druzhba pipeline for transporting oil, contrary to statements from Kyiv. The Prime Minister stated that Ukraine is doing everything to “sow economic chaos in Hungary,” but Budapest will not allow itself to be blackmailed.
Oil supplies through the Druzhba pipeline to Hungary and Slovakia were halted on January 27 amid large-scale Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure. On that day, Ukrainian authorities reported a fire at an oil pumping station in the Lviv region as a result of a Russian drone strike.
As European Pravda writes, instead of the damaged Druzhba pipeline, Ukraine proposed to the EU to use other elements of its oil transportation infrastructure for oil transit to Hungary and Slovakia, in particular the Odessa-Brody pipeline.
