Ukraine increases gas imports from Slovakia, which it resumed last week

Bratislava, 13 February (CTK correspondent) – Ukraine has increased its imports of natural gas through the pipeline from Slovakia, from which it resumed taking supplies last week. This is shown by data from Slovak gas transmission operator Eustream. According to Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who previously criticized the government in Kyiv for ending gas transit to Slovakia, Russian gas is flowing to Ukraine. Ukraine, which has been defending itself against Russia’s military invasion for almost three years, is buying gas abroad, according to earlier reports, following a series of Russian missile attacks on its gas facilities.

Gas supplies from Slovakia to Ukraine rose to 12.2 million cubic meters on Wednesday, up from around seven million cubic meters in previous days. Ukraine uses a backup pipeline to import gas from Slovakia. Slovakia began reverse gas supplies to its neighboring country through this pipeline in 2014, as part of the European response at the time to the interruption of Russian gas flows to Ukrainian consumers.

Fico said this week that Slovakia has the right to consider ways of stopping foreign natural gas supplies to Ukraine. He then said, however, that he would never agree to Slovakia sending its gas to its eastern neighbor. He said the problem was that foreign suppliers buy Russian gas in Europe and deliver it to Ukraine.

„Europe is watching Ukraine take Russian gas from Europe and pay for it, and suddenly Europe has no problem with Ukraine essentially financing Russia’s war spending. Even crazier is that instead of Russian gas flowing from east to west, Russian gas is flowing from west to east, causing shortages in Europe and a huge increase in gas prices,“ Fico said.

In recent weeks, the Slovak prime minister has repeatedly criticized Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for Kyiv’s decision to stop transporting Russian gas through Ukrainian territory at the beginning of January, after the relevant contract with the Russian side expired. According to Fico, this has cost Slovakia revenue from Russian gas transit. Russian gas company Gazprom then began supplying gas to Slovakia via Turkey and other countries, including Hungary, according to Slovak gas utility SPP. However, the capacity of the Slovakia-Hungary pipeline interconnector is much lower than that of the transit pipeline through Ukraine and is not even enough to cover gas consumption in Slovakia.

Slovak company SPP has a contract with Gazprom for gas supplies through 2034. Under the contract, the Russian side is responsible for transporting the gas to Slovakia.