Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico's participation in the December European Council will be remembered mainly for his dispute with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, particularly over the issue of natural gas transit through Ukraine from 1 January 2025. Zelensky is totally opposed to this and is harming Slovakia's interests. Fico said this after the EU summit in Brussels.
Because of the war with Russia, Ukraine is paying much more than its neighbours, including Slovakia, whose energy imports will become more expensive from 1 January after the end of Russian gas transit through Ukrainian territory. Ukraine is losing lives, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said yesterday after talks with 27 EU leaders in Brussels.
Zelenskyy said that some neighbouring countries, such as Slovakia, are telling him that buying gas from other sources is more expensive and that they are losing money and profits.
"When the Slovak Premier says that Slovakia is losing money and profits, I say that we're losing human lives. We're losing much more than Slovakia," said Zelenskyy, adding that Russia has seized Ukraine's nuclear power plants in the war, and his country therefore doesn't have enough electricity of its own. It must therefore also buy it and is losing out in this area as well.
Zelenskyy confirmed that Ukraine will not extend flows of gas from Russia through its territory in the new year. He admitted the possibility of transit of originally Russian gas via other suppliers, but he stressed that profits from the sale of this gas must not flow into Russia's coffers until the end of the war.
Source: TASR
