Slovak PM voices complaint to EU leaders over Zelensky’s gas transit interruption

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has appealed to European Union leaders because Ukraine will not provide gas transit through its territory from January 2025.

Fico published the corresponding letter on his Facebook.

In an appeal to the head of the European Council, Antonio Costa, and the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the prime minister, stated that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky "unilaterally" announced the suspension of gas transit.

Fico says that he does not know what the "vague approach" of the European Commission and most of the bloc's countries is based on. Either the economic consequences of the suspension of transit "were not analyzed professionally at all, and the issue was generally assessed only ideologically," or such an analysis was carried out but not openly discussed.

He said he had asked the Slovak gas supplier SPP to assess the situation because the EU does not have "convincing objective documents."

Fico writes to EU leaders in the letter that "tacit consent to the unilateral decision of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is wrong and irrational."

He says this will "lead to tensions and retaliatory measures."

"There is no doubt that the unilateral decision of the Ukrainian president will have a significant negative impact on our joint European efforts to keep pace with the rapidly developing countries of the world," Fico wrote.

He also argues that stopping gas transit will harm the EU more than Russia, citing "objective and convincing documents" from the Slovak oil and gas company SPP.

The Slovak prime minister called on EU leaders to "pay due attention to this unprecedented situation and attach urgent importance to it."

He also added that European efforts to support Ukraine should be "rational" and not "in the form of self-destructive and extremely harmful gestures for the EU."

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Naftogaz's contract with Gazprom from 2019 allows the transportation of 40 billion cubic meters of gas annually.

It should be noted that Gazprom is not paying under its contract for the Sokhranivka gas pipeline route, located in the occupied zone.

Volodymyr Zelensky stated that Ukraine is not going to extend the gas transit agreement with Russia, which expires on January 1, 2025. However, Ukraine has discussed transiting Azerbaijani gas to the EU.

This caused outrage in Slovakia. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico personally traveled to Kyiv to persuade the Ukrainian government to extend the contract.

One of Fico's arguments was that if Ukraine "wants to preserve the infrastructure, it should use it." He also emphasized that both countries would benefit from the transit, as Slovakia would pay Ukraine transit fees.

However, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal explained that imposing sanctions on Russian gas and depriving Russia of the ability to finance a war with it was "Ukraine's strategic goal."