Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said he had agreed to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss "all aspects of cooperation" between the countries.
He wrote about this on the social network X.
Zelensky spoke with Fico on the phone today and invited him to Ukraine. At the same time, the Slovak Prime Minister offers to meet in one of the European Union countries. He has already asked the government to find a suitable date for this.
Fico said that the conversation with Zelensky confirmed their different views on the state of the “Druzhba” oil pipeline. He said that he had the impression that "the Ukrainian side is not interested in resuming oil transit through the territory of Ukraine".
While Kyiv claims damage from Russian attacks, Bratislava believes that the pipeline is operational and nothing is interfering with the transit of oil.
"I argued that we have the legal right to such imports, based on signed agreements with suppliers, as well as the EU decision that allows the use of energy resources from Russia until the end of 2027," Fico wrote.
He also noted that Ukraine has not yet allowed the Slovak ambassador to inspect the pipeline. According to him, Zelensky "rejected such inspection activities, citing the negative position of the Ukrainian special services".
"For this reason, in order to avoid misunderstandings, I informed the President of Ukraine that, together with the Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orbán, we propose to create an inspection group of experts appointed by the European Commission and EU member states, which would directly determine on-site the actual state of technological damage to the pipeline or its ability to continue the transit of oil to the territory of the Slovak Republic," Fico added.
Stopping “Druzhba” and threats from Slovakia and Hungary
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 Ukrainian Foreign Ministry 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.
On February 23, the Prime Minister of Slovakia reported that the country would stop providing emergency electricity assistance to Ukraine. Hungary threatened to do the same, but the countryʼs Foreign Minister said that this issue should be acted "extremely carefully", as it could affect Hungarians in Transcarpathia.
However, “Ukrenergo” stated that the possible termination of emergency electricity supplies from Slovakia will not affect the situation in the unified power system of Ukraine.
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