Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has talked to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about the oil crisis due to the suspension of transit through the Druzhba pipeline. Fico said this on his Facebook page on Friday, February 27.
Fico noted that Slovakia is experiencing an oil crisis, which is why he wanted to know when and if oil transit through Ukraine to his country would be resumed. According to him, Slovakia has a legal right to such imports based on signed agreements with suppliers, as well as the EU's decision to extract energy raw materials from russia until the end of 2027
"I informed the president that his decision to stop oil transit is causing us logistical difficulties and economic losses. The conversation confirmed that we have different views on the state of the pipeline. Although our intelligence information confirms that the pipeline is not damaged and nothing prevents the transit of oil, the President of Ukraine insisted that repairing the pipeline would take a long time," the prime minister wrote.
Fico, together with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, proposed to create an inspection team with experts appointed by the European Commission and EU member states to establish the condition of the pipeline and its ability to continue oil transit. Fico also said that Zelenskyy rejected a proposal to allow the Slovak ambassador to Kyiv and the EU ambassador to Ukraine to conduct such an inspection.
At the same time, Fico accepted Zelenskyy's invitation to hold joint Ukrainian-Slovak talks on cooperation.
"Pro domo: From my conversation with Ukrainian President Zelenskyy, I got the unequivocal impression that the Ukrainian side is not interested in resuming oil transit through the territory of Ukraine," Fico summarized.
As the Ukrainian News agency earlier reported, on February 23, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico announced that Slovakia had officially stopped emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine.
On February 22, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico threatened to stop emergency electricity supply if Ukraine does not resume oil supplies to his country.
On February 19, Slovakia announced the possibility of cutting off electricity supplies to Ukraine amid a conflict over the transit of russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline.
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