© EPA-EFE/MARTIN DIVISEK According to the Slovak Prime Minister, Volodymyr Zelensky is causing financial and technological issues for the country.
The Prime Minister of Slovakia, Robert Fico, declared that if the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, does not reinstate petroleum deliveries to Slovakia by February 23, he will request that Slovak firms cease immediate electricity aid to Ukraine on that selfsame day. He conveyed this perspective on his social media account.
“From the commencement of the conflict, we have aided Ukraine. We have approximately 180,000 Ukrainians within our borders, providing them with humanitarian support and organizing discussions between governing bodies. We are contributing far more to Ukraine than numerous other nations,” the politician articulated in a declaration.
Fico asserted that the Ukrainian leader is disregarding Slovakia’s tranquil stance and demonstrates animosity towards the nation due to its lack of endorsement for the war. As per the Slovak Prime Minister, Zelensky initially halted gas shipments, leading to losses for Slovakia amounting to roughly 500 million euros annually, and now he has obstructed crude flows, engendering even greater economic and technological snags.
“Slovakia is a dignified and independent nation, and I am a proud and independent Slovak. Should oil provisions to Slovakia not recommence on Monday, I will demand a halt to emergency power provisions to Ukraine. In January of 2026 alone, they were needed to stabilize the Ukrainian electrical network twice as frequently as during the entirety of 2025,” Fico underscored.
It should be recalled that the dispatch of Russian petroleum to Slovakia and Hungary via the Druzhba oil conduit was suspended in late January after Russia targeted Brody in the Lviv district. The conflagration at the site took numerous days to quell.
Furthermore, Budapest communicated the termination of diesel fuel distributions to Ukraine. Fico has previously affirmed that Zelensky is “jeopardizing Slovakia’s backing for Ukraine’s EU membership” and has once more menaced ceasing electricity provisions to Ukraine, irrespective of the precarious state of the energy infrastructure resulting from Russian bombardments.
Ukraine, for its part, is suggesting an alternative for the Druzhba oil conduit to supply petroleum to Hungary and Slovakia. Specifically, it is tendering to the European Union provisional usage of the Odessa-Brody oil conduit while the Druzhba undergoes repairs.