Consultations in Brussels regarding the suspension of gas transit from the Russian Federation through Ukraine have been canceled – the government of Slovakia

Consultations between the government officials of Slovakia, Ukraine and representatives of the European Commission on stopping the transit of Russian gas through the territory of Ukraine, which were supposed to take place on January 7 in Brussels, have been cancelled.

As the Slovak government reported, the European Commission canceled the meeting because the Ukrainian side would not participate in it.

“The European Commission, in cooperation with the interested parties, is looking for an alternative date when the meeting could take place. We will inform the media as soon as the date is known,” the Slovak government said in a statement.

RFE/RL has asked the Ministry of Energy of Ukraine to comment on the information, the answer will be published as soon as it arrives.

Bratislava demands to restore the transit of Russian gas through the territory of Ukraine, because, according to Prime Minister Robert Fico, Slovakia will lose 500 million euros a year by paying fees for supplying gas to its country from countries other than the Russian Federation.

Ukraine stopped the transportation of Russian natural gas through its territory on January 1 at 07:00 “in the interests of national security”.

The main European importers of Russian gas, Slovakia and Austria, have already secured alternative supply routes, although Fico said there would be “dramatic consequences” for the entire European Union, demanding the resumption of transit. If this does not happen, the Slovak prime minister did not rule out stopping the export of electricity to Ukraine and reducing aid to Ukrainian refugees, of whom there are about 130,000 in Slovakia.

The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyi, in turn, suggested that Robert Fico, who was recently hosted by Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin, “has been instructed to open a second energy front against Ukraine.”

Measures in response to the stoppage of Russian gas transit through the territory of Ukraine, the Slovak government, as claimed by Fico, should have been discussed after the meeting in Brussels, scheduled for January 7 and, accordingly, postponed for an unspecified date.