Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said his government was considering retaliatory measures against Ukraine after Kyiv shut down a pipeline supplying central Europe with Russian natural gas.
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The Slovak leader Robert Fico threatened to cut financial aid to more than 130,000 Ukrainian refugees living in the country, as part of a series of retaliatory measures against kyiv for its decision to cut off Russian gas deliveries to Slovakia through its territory.
In a video message posted on Facebook, Fico said his party, Smer, would also consider cutting electricity supply of Ukraine and to demand the renewal of gas transits or compensation for the financial losses that Slovakia suffered, according to him, due to the cessation of the transport of Russian gas to its territory.
As of December 8, the United Nations Refugee Agency estimated the number of Ukrainian refugees in Slovakia at 130,532, the vast majority of them having crossed directly the border common to the two countries.
Russian gas exports through a Soviet-era pipeline through Ukraine were halted on January 1 after Kyiv said it would not renew a five-year transit deal with the Russian energy giant Gazprom, concluded before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.
Slovakia has spent months trying to convince Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to renew the deal so that the flow of cheap Russian gas to Europe can continue.
The row between the two countries has intensified in recent weeks, with Mr Zelensky refusing to renew the agreement. Ukraine’s leader said he would not allow countries to “earn extra billions on our backs“.
Mr Fico responded by saying that cutting off Russian gas would lead to a increase in gas and electricity prices in Europe and would ultimately harm the European Union more than Russia.
He added that Slovakia itself would not suffer from a gas shortage because it had made arrangements, but that Ukraine’s decision to cut off Russian gas would still mean for Bratislava a loss of 500 million euros in transit fees from other countries.
-Slovakia signed a short-term pilot contract to buy natural gas from Azerbaijan, as well as an agreement to import US-origin liquefied natural gas via Poland last year. It can also receive gas through Austrian, Hungarian and Czech pipelines.
Mr. Fico, however, affirmed that the end of the agreement would cost the European Union 120 billion euros over the next two years.
The authorities from Moldovawhich is not a Member State of the European Union, have declared a state of emergency in December due to what they anticipated would be severe gas shortages following the end of the deal.
The European Commission said Europe had prepared for the change and that most states would be able to do without Russian gas supplies.
“The 14 billion cubic meters per year currently passing through Ukraine can be entirely replaced by LNG and non-Russian pipeline imports via other routes “, a European Commission spokesperson told Euronews in December.
The Polish government called the end of the agreement a “victory” against Russia.
Mr Fico, who has long maintained friendly ties with Moscow, much to Ukraine’s chagrin, visited Russian President Vladimir Putin last month to discuss gas supplies, during which he threatened to interrupting the supply of emergency electricity to Kyiv, on which the war-torn country is heavily dependent.
At the time, Poland said it was ready to increase its energy exports to Ukraine to compensate for Slovakia’s potential losses.
For his part, Mr. Zelensky accused Mr. Fico of helping Vladimir Putin to “finance the war and weaken UkraineLast week, the Ukrainian leader said Mr Fico’s efforts to pursue the deal amounted to Slovakia opening a “second energy front” against Ukraine on orders from Russia.
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