Slovakia threatened to cut benefits to Ukrainian refugees in retaliation for Kyiv’s decision to halt gas flows from Russia, as Moldova accused the Kremlin of causing a “security crisis” by ending gas supplies to a separatist-held region of the country.
Russian gas stopped flowing through Ukraine to European Union states this week after Kyiv refused to renew a transit contract, closing an East-West supply line that survived the cold war and more than 1,000 days of all-out fighting between Russia and Ukraine.
No power problems have been reported in EU states and the European Commission says the bloc was prepared for the end of the transit deal, but Slovakia claimed it would have a “drastic effect” on Europe and threatened retaliatory action.
Slovakia’s populist prime minister Robert Fico – who has sought to strengthen ties with Russia while criticising Ukraine and EU support for Kyiv – said a government delegation would discuss the energy issue in Brussels next week and then decide how to respond to what he called “sabotage” by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
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The ruling Smer party was “ready to debate and agree in the coalition on halting supplies of electricity [to Ukraine] and on significant lowering of support for Ukrainian citizens in Slovakia”, Mr Fico said.
“The only alternative for a sovereign Slovakia is renewal of transit or demanding compensation mechanisms that will replace the loss in public finances of nearly €500 million.”
That is the amount that Slovakia reportedly makes each year as a transit country for Russian gas, and Mr Fico is believed to have discussed the issue when he paid a surprise visit to Moscow to meet Russian president Vladimir Putin before Christmas.
The visit came after Mr Fico repeatedly criticised western sanctions on Russia and said Slovakia would not supply Ukraine with any more weapons, and it prompted a strong rebuke from Kyiv and EU allies including the Czech Republic.
“It appears that Putin gave Fico the order to open the second energy front against Ukraine at the expense of the Slovak people’s interests. Fico’s threats to cut off Ukraine’s emergency power supply this winter while Russia attacks our power plants and energy grid can only be explained by this,” Mr Zelenskiy said last week.
He also noted that Ukraine paid Slovakia $200 million (€195 million) a year for electricity imports: “Slovakia is part of the single European energy market and Fico must respect common European rules. Any arbitrary decisions in Bratislava or Moscow’s orders to Fico regarding electricity cannot cut Ukraine’s power supply, but they can certainly cut current Slovak authorities’ ties to the European Community.”
Commenting on Mr Fico’s visit to Moscow, Czech foreign minister Jan Lipavsky said his country had “ensured independence from Russian energy supplies so that we wouldn’t have to crawl in front of a mass murderer”. Poland, meanwhile, has pledged to give more energy support to Ukraine if Slovakia halts electricity supplies.
As Russian gas stopped flowing through Ukraine’s pipeline network at new year, Moscow also said it was halting gas flows to Moldova over what it claims are unpaid bills.
The area of Moldova worst affected by gas shortages is Transdniestria, which has been run by Russian-backed separatists since a short war in the early 1990s.
“By jeopardising the future of the protectorate it has backed for three decades in an effort to destabilise Moldova, Russia is revealing the inevitable outcome for all its allies – betrayal and isolation,” said pro-western Moldovan prime minister Dorin Recean.
“We treat this as a security crisis aimed at enabling the return of pro-Russian forces to power in Moldova and weaponising our territory against Ukraine, with whom we share a 1,200km border.”
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