Slovakia will stop providing Ukraine with electricity unless it restores the deliveries within two days, Prime Minister Robert Fico has said
A stone commemorating the Druzhba oil pipeline in Szazhalombatta, Hungary. © Janos Kummer/Getty Images
[RT] Slovakia
will cut its emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine unless Kiev
resumes deliveries of Russian oil by Monday, Prime Minister Robert Fico
has warned.
The standoff centers on the Soviet-era Druzhba
pipeline, the main artery carrying Russian crude to Hungary and
Slovakia. When supplies stopped in late January, Ukraine blamed a
Russian airstrike. Moscow, however, insisted that Kiev was using energy
to blackmail the two EU countries, which have been critical of the
bloc’s support for Ukraine. Both Slovakia and Hungary echoed Moscow’s
stance.
Writing on Saturday on X, Fico issued a direct ultimatum
to Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky while hinting at Kiev’s ingratitude over
past humanitarian assistance and readiness to host around 180,000
Ukrainian refugees.
Zelensky, he said, “refuses to understand our peace-oriented approach and, because we do not support the war, he is behaving maliciously toward Slovakia.”
IF THE
UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT DOES NOT RESUME OIL SUPPLIES TO SLOVAKIA ON MONDAY,
ON THAT SAME DAY I WILL ASK THE RELEVANT SLOVAK COMPANIES TO STOP
EMERGENCY ELECTRICITY SUPPLIES TO UKRAINE.
Fico recalled that Ukraine had already halted Russian gas supplies to Slovakia, a move he said costs the country €500 million ($589 million) per year. “Slovakia cannot accept Slovak-Ukrainian relations as a one-way ticket benefiting only Ukraine,” he said.
The Slovak leader also stressed that Ukraine is highly
dependent on outside energy supplies as its own power grid is reeling
under Russian strikes, which Moscow says come in retaliation for Kiev’s “terrorist attacks” deep into the country.
”In January 2026 alone, these emergency supplies, needed to stabilize the Ukrainian energy grid, were required twice as much as during the entire year of 2025,” he said, adding that Zelensky’s “unacceptable behavior” once again proved that Slovakia had been right to opt out of the €90 billion EU loan to Kiev.
This comes as Hungary has also warned Kiev that it is “considering the option of stopping power and gas shipments towards Ukraine” over the Druzhba pipeline stand-off.