Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico threatened on Saturday (21) to cut off emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine unless Kiev takes steps within two days to resume pumping Russian oil to Slovakia through Ukrainian territory, which was halted almost a month ago.
Slovakia, along with Hungary, is one of only two EU countries that still rely on significant quantities of Russian oil transported via the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline through Ukraine. Both also have leaders who maintain close relations with Moscow, contrary to a pro-Ukrainian European consensus.
Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline has been cut off since Jan. 27, when Kiev says a Russian drone strike hit pipeline equipment in western Ukraine. Slovakia and Hungary have become increasingly vocal this week in demanding that it be resumed.
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Meanwhile, Slovakia is also an important source of European electricity for Ukraine, necessary as Russian attacks damaged its power grid. Energy sector experts say Slovakia supplied 18% of Ukraine’s record electricity imports last month.
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“If oil supplies to Slovakia do not resume on Monday, I will ask SEPS, the state-owned company, to stop emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine,” Fico said in a post on X.
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Ukraine has proposed alternative transit routes to ship oil to Europe while emergency repair work on the pipeline is underway. In a letter seen by Reutersthe Ukrainian mission to the EU proposed shipments via Ukraine’s oil transportation system or via a sea route, potentially including the Odessa-Brody pipeline, which links Ukraine’s main Black Sea port to the EU.
“Ukraine consistently reiterates its continued willingness to ensure the transportation of oil within the available legal framework,” he said.
Since October last year, Russia has intensified its drone and missile attacks on the Ukrainian energy system, disrupting electricity and heating supplies and plunging millions of Ukrainians into long blackouts during the bitterly cold winter temperatures.
