Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said he may move to halt emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine if oil deliveries to Slovakia are not resumed.
In a post on X, Fico warned that “if the Ukrainian president does not resume oil supplies to Slovakia on Monday, on that same day I will ask the relevant Slovak companies to stop emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine.”
Fico said Slovakia has provided extensive support to Ukraine since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, including humanitarian aid and hosting around 180,000 Ukrainian refugees. He added that Bratislava has done “substantially more for Ukraine than some other countries.”
At the same time, Fico accused President Volodymyr Zelensky of acting “maliciously” toward Slovakia because, he said, Kyiv does not accept Bratislava’s “peace-oriented approach.”
According to Fico, Ukraine previously halted gas transit to Slovakia, causing losses of €500 million ($589 million) per year and has now stopped oil flows, leading to further financial and logistical problems.
“If the West does not mind that the Nord Stream gas pipeline was blown up, Slovakia cannot accept Slovak-Ukrainian relations as a one-way ticket benefiting only Ukraine,” Fico wrote, adding that Slovakia is a “proud and sovereign country.”
He said that if oil supplies are not restored, he would ask SEPS, Slovakia’s state-owned electricity transmission operator, to suspend emergency power supplies to Ukraine. Fico claimed that in January 2026 alone, such emergency deliveries to stabilize Ukraine’s energy grid were needed twice as often as during all of 2025.
Citing what he described as Zelensky’s “unacceptable behavior” toward Slovakia, Fico also said he considered it “absolutely correct” to refuse Slovakia’s participation in a recent €90 billion military loan for Ukraine.
The disruption comes as Ukraine faces an electricity deficit following repeated Russian attacks on its energy infrastructure, making emergency power imports critical.
Oil transit through Ukraine to Slovakia and Hungary stopped in late January after Russia struck a pumping station on the Druzhba pipeline. As a result, Ukraine was forced to halt oil flows to refineries in both countries.
To secure supplies, Slovakia and Hungary began drawing on strategic reserves and approached Croatia about alternative deliveries via its port and pipeline system. Croatian authorities agreed to assist, but without transporting Russian oil.