3/1/2025–|Last updated: 1/3/202510:52 AM (Mecca time)
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Vetso said Thursday that the coalition government will discuss measures to respond to Ukraine after it stopped the flow of Russian gas through its territory to Slovakia.
Vitso stated in a video message posted on Facebook that his party would consider cutting off electricity supplies to neighboring Ukraine, reducing aid to Ukrainian refugees, and demanding the renewal of the gas transportation agreement or compensation for the losses he said Slovakia was incurring due to the cessation of Russian gas flows.
Russian gas exports via Soviet-era pipelines that pass through Ukraine stopped at the beginning of the new year, marking the end of decades of Moscow’s dominance of European energy markets, as the gas transportation agreement between Russia and Ukraine expired.
Slovakia is one of the affected countries, although most other European countries are prepared to stop the flow of Russian gas through Ukraine.
Slovakia has alternative gas supplies, but Vitso – who ended military aid to Ukraine and sought rapprochement with Moscow – says the country will lose the transportation revenues it receives and will pay additional transportation fees to bring in non-Russian gas, adding that European gas and energy prices will rise as a result of Ukraine’s decision.
Vizzo pointed out that his country suffers an annual loss of 500 million euros ($513 million) from gas transit fees due to the stoppage.
According to Vizzo, European Union countries will have to pay about 70 billion additional euros annually without Russian gas, in the form of increases in gas and electricity prices.
sabotage
Vitso stated that a Slovak delegation will discuss the situation in Brussels next Tuesday, and then his ruling coalition will discuss the response to what he called “sabotage” carried out by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Vizzo said: “Russia is almost not affected by this. The only benefit will be to the United States from President Zelensky’s decision due to the increase in gas exports to Europe.”
Last week, Zelensky accused Viso of opening an energy-related “second front” against Ukraine on orders from Russia.
Slovakia’s gas transportation network operator Ustream, in which the state has a majority stake, achieved revenues of 158 million euros and a profit after tax of 25 million euros in the six months to January 31 of last year, the most recent period it announced on its website. Online.
The Slovak state gas import company, SBP, which covers about two-thirds of domestic demand, said on Wednesday that it would face about 90 million euros in additional costs, especially transportation fees, if it used a substitute for all Russian gas this year.
According to electricity grid operator data, Slovakia exported 2.4 million megawatt hours of electricity in the first 11 months of 2024 to Ukraine, which suffers from electricity shortages due to Russian bombing.
