Slovakia intensifies rhetoric against Zelensky in full dispute over Russian gas transit

The Slovak Prime Minister, Robert Ficohas been combative after meeting today with senior European Union officials to analyze Ukraine’s decision to end the transit of Russian gas through its territory.

Fico has reiterated his warnings of promoting “reciprocal measures” against the Ukrainians. These could include limiting power supplies and helping residents. refugees from this countryalso hinting that his Government could be willing to block measures at the EU level. “Yes, some may say that what I am saying now is cruel, but what Zelensky is doing to us and what he is doing to the EU is also cruel,” Fico told reporters in Brussels.

Fico claims that kyiv’s refusal to conclude a new supply agreement with the Kremlin when the five-year contract between the Russian Gazprom and the Ukrainian Naftogaz expired on December 31 has caused gas prices to rise. The pro-Russian prime minister also assures that this fact will cost Slovakia 500 million euros in tariff costs for the supply of gas to the west of the EU.

Fico, who has long been an outspoken critic of the EU’s response to the Russian invasion, threatened in the new year to cut electricity supply and aid to Ukraine if kyiv did not accept that Russian gas continue passing through its territory. In a social media post on January 2, he claimed that Ukraine’s actions amounted to “sabotage” of the Slovak economy.

The European Commission insists that the EU and its Member States have had plenty of time to prepare for the expiry of the contract, reiterating that it saw no threat to the EU’s energy security. The Slovak Prime Minister has stated that “significant shipments of gas continue to arrive in the east”, despite the fact that The United States has increased exports to the EU to compensate for the drop in supply.

After meeting with Dan JørgensenEnergy Commissioner, Fico has said he hopes the EU will address the damage that the gas supply situation is causing to his country and to the bloc’s competitiveness in general, especially vis-à-vis the United States and China. The Prime Minister has hinted that Bratislava might be willing to brandishing its right of veto on EU decisions relating to the ongoing waras Hungary has tried on several occasions.

Despite Fico’s angry rhetoric after the meeting, he and Jørgensen have issued a joint statement in which they spoke of a “good and open discussion on the energy situation and the broader implications” of the end of Russian gas flows through Ukraine. “In this context, we have agreed to create a working group to monitor and identify options based on a joint assessment of the situation,” they stated.

The Slovak prime minister, who survived an assassination attempt last May, has lashed out at his political opponents in his country during his press conference, addressed both to his national audience and to kyiv and Brussels. His latest statements came about fifteen days after his criticized trip to Moscow to meet with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.