Slovakia wants to keep buying Russian gas, Fico says, and demands transit from Ukraine

Bratislava, January 28 (CTK correspondent) – Slovakia wants to continue buying Russian gas and is demanding that Ukraine transport it across its territory, Prime Minister Robert Fico said. Today, Fico again threatened to block European Union decisions on providing aid to Kyiv, which has been defending itself against Russia’s military invasion since February 2022. He described Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s statement that Ukraine was ready for possible transit of gas from Azerbaijan to Europe as a smokescreen intended to avoid retaliatory measures, and called Zelenskyy himself an enemy. The opposition criticised Fico.

Gas stopped flowing through Ukraine to Slovakia at the beginning of this year after the relevant transit contract between Russia’s Gazprom and Ukraine’s Naftogaz expired. Fico then criticised Zelenskyy in particular and threatened Kyiv with retaliatory measures, including halting electricity supplies to Ukraine, limiting assistance for Ukrainian refugees and vetoing EU financial aid to Ukraine.

„The most realistic option would be for Slovakia to buy gas at the Russian-Ukrainian border and for that gas to be transported through Ukraine as Slovak gas,“ Fico said at a meeting of the Slovak parliament’s economic affairs committee.

He added that a similar arrangement had worked well for Hungary when buying Russian oil. The oil is also used by the Bratislava refinery Slovnaft, which belongs to the Hungarian MOL Group.

The current gas purchase contract between Slovak gas utility SPP and Gazprom, which runs until 2034, stipulates that the Russian side is responsible for delivering gas to Slovakia.

„We will continue to pressure Ukraine to return to its obligation to transport gas,“ Fico said.

According to him, this obligation arises from Kyiv’s Association Agreement with the EU.

Fico welcomed Monday’s statement by the European Commission, which said, among other things, that it would continue talks with Ukraine on gas supplies to Europe and include Hungary and Slovakia in the discussions. According to the document, the Commission expects third countries to respect the fact that the integrity of energy infrastructure supplying EU member states is a matter of EU security.

Fico questioned Zelenskyy’s statement that Ukraine was ready to supply gas from Azerbaijan to Europe, claiming that no project in this regard was ready. „What else could Mr Zelenskyy do but talk about some gas from Azerbaijan? Nothing is ready; no project is on the table. He is blowing bubbles again, thinking that this bubble will spare us from taking tough decisions,“ Fico said.

The Slovak prime minister said he would veto EU financial aid to Ukraine if Zelenskyy did not resume gas transit through Ukraine and allow the subsequent transit of the commodity through Slovakia.

„Our enemy is Zelenskyy. Zelenskyy caused the problems we are facing. I don’t like him because he is harming Slovakia,“ Fico claimed.

He also criticised former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko for not supplying gas to Slovakia from Ukraine’s storage facilities during the 2009 gas crisis, when Fico was prime minister for the first time. At the time, Russian gas supplies to Slovakia were temporarily halted because of a dispute between Ukraine and Russia, prompting Bratislava to order large companies to cut their gas consumption.

According to Fico, Slovakia is currently drawing gas from storage facilities. He justified efforts to resume gas transit through Ukraine, among other reasons, by saying that Slovakia is losing transit fee revenue since the flow was halted. Transit is handled by the semi-state-owned company Eustream, in which the Czech businessman Daniel Křetínský’s Energetický a průmyslový holding group has a stake and managerial control.

Karol Galek, an MP for the opposition Freedom and Solidarity party, disputed Fico’s claim during the meeting of the parliamentary committee that the price of gas had risen because transit through Ukraine had ended.

According to Ivan Štefunko, deputy leader of the largest opposition movement, Progressive Slovakia, Fico, who met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow in December, had secured nothing regarding gas supplies to Slovakia.

„The prime minister refuses to take into account the reality of the continent’s biggest conflict since the Second World War when discussing gas supplies. He overlooks the fact that if Putin had not attacked Ukraine, there would be no problem with gas transit,“ Štefunko said.

He added that solidarity with Slovakia’s attacked neighbour was alien to Fico.