Fico to Ask SEPS to Halt Emergency Electricity Supplies to Ukraine

Bratislava, 22 February (TASR) – Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) will visit the state-run Slovak Electricity Transmission System (SEPS) on Monday (23 February) and ask it to halt emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine. The reason is the suspension of Russian oil transit through Ukrainian territory to Slovakia and Hungary, the prime minister announced in a video posted on social media on Sunday evening. "If the President (of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy) tells us that we should buy gas and oil somewhere other than Russia, although it is more difficult and more expensive and we are losing large sums of money, we have the right to respond," Fico said in the video. The prime minister also described it as regrettable that the European Union prefers Ukraine's interests over those of its member states. "Distrust in the EU is growing at a brutal pace and will result in the EU's inability to adopt important decisions requiring the consent of all member states. There will be a problem approving another sanctions package against Russia, and there will be a problem reaching agreement at the next EU summit on measures to support the EU's competitiveness and on how to reduce electricity prices," he said. Fico also stated that any peace agreement must be adopted only with the full involvement of Ukraine. He claimed that he does not want the country to end up like Czechoslovakia in 1938. However, he added that Europe is bearing the full burden of the war in Ukraine, which he described as madness in the current economic situation. "So we do not have the resources to reduce electricity prices, yet at the same time we are approving another military loan to Ukraine worth €90 billion, from which Ukraine will not pay back a single cent. I consider it absolutely right that I did not drag Slovakia into this loan. Again and at every opportunity I will stress that instead of deliberately prolonging a pointless war, the entire EU should prepare a meaningful and fair peace proposal and make maximum efforts to push it through," Fico criticised. Fico also referred to the statement of German Chancellor Friedrich Merz that Europe must ensure that Russia can no longer wage war militarily or economically. "The statements of the German Chancellor clearly prove that military support for Ukraine will continue at any cost, regardless of evident Ukrainian military setbacks, and regardless of the fact that this conflict has no military solution," he said. According to Ukraine, oil supplies to Slovakia and Hungary were halted as a result of a Russian attack on the Druzhba oil pipeline on 27 January. On Wednesday (18 February), following a cabinet session, the prime minister accused President Zelenskyy of political blackmail and interference in the election campaign in Hungary. Slovakia's only refinery, Slovnaft, is currently securing alternative supplies. In the meantime, it is to produce petroleum products from state reserves released by the government. A total of 250,000 tonnes of oil are available. The refinery is operating in a limited mode, with an oil emergency declared in Slovakia. mf