Slovakia stops emergency electricity assistance to Ukraine

Slovakia will stop providing emergency electricity assistance to Ukraine from February 23 due to the suspension of Russian oil transit through the Druzhba oil pipeline.

This was reported by the countryʼs Prime Minister Robert Fico.

"From today, if the Ukrainian side turns to Slovakia for assistance in stabilizing the energy network, it will not receive such assistance," he noted.

What preceded

Oil transit through Ukraine via the “Druzhba” pipeline was halted in late January due to massive Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure. As landlocked countries, Hungary and Slovakia are critically dependent on this route for Russian energy supplies.

On February 18, the governments of Hungary and Slovakia reported that the countries were stopping diesel exports to Ukraine, and later threatened to stop electricity supplies as well.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine called these threats from Hungary and Slovakia blackmail and noted that they are ready to use the Early Warning Mechanism, a tool within the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU that allows the parties to quickly respond to threats in the energy sector.

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