Robert Fico, the prime minister of Slovakia, has escalated his long-running dispute with Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, over his decision to completely halt the transit of Russian gas through Ukrainian territory after the end of 2024,
Euronews reports.
Slovakia, a landlocked country, remains highly dependent on Russian gas, which it gets from Gazprom, the state-owned monopoly, through a pipeline throughout Ukraine.
"If anyone is going to prevent the transit of gas to the territory of the Slovak Republic, if anyone is going to cause an increase in gas prices on the territory of Europe, if anyone is going to cause enormous economic damage to the European Union, it is President Zelenskyy," Robert Fico said in a combative press conference at the end of a one-day summit of EU leaders in Brussels.
"He has a right to be nervous. I would not want to be in his shoes because the country is struggling," he added, insisting Slovakia would never allow Ukraine to join NATO.
Zelenskyy, who took part in Thursday's gathering to plead for more military support against Russia's invading forces, made it clear the transit contract between Gazprom and Ukraine, from which Kyiv has earned steady revenue, would not be renewed for 2025.
"We're not going to extend the transit of Russian gas," Zelenskyy told reporters.
"We won't allow them to earn additional billions on our blood. And any country in the world that can get something cheap from Russia will eventually become dependent on Russia – whether it happens in one month or one year. That's their policy," he said.
The ban, he added, will apply to any gas flow "coming from Russia" to avoid the risk of having Russian gas sold to Europe under the guise of Azerbaijan-made gas.
According to Bruegel, a Brussels-based think tank, Slovakia and other landlocked countries of Central Europe could resort to an "exchange" mechanism: Azerbaijan would buy gas from Russia labelled "Russian gas" while Russia would supply gas to Ukraine and the rest of Europe labelled as "Azeri gas" using the same infrastructure.
But on Thursday, Zelenskyy ruled out any such hypothetical scenario, arguing the Kremlin would still earn money to finance its large-scale invasion.
"We don't want to play a game where this other country receives gas from Russia and then transits it. This is the same as continuing to profit from this war and sending money to Russia," Zekenskyy said.
