“If they put Ukraine above Slovakia”: Fico threatened to block sanctions against Russia and a loan to Kyiv

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said that Slovakia will not support a new sanctions package against Russia if the European Commission continues to “favor Ukraine” at the expense of the interests of EU member states.

He said this in a video message posted on Facebook.

“If the European Commission places Ukraine above Slovakia, it will have to forget about support for the 20th package of sanctions against the Russian Federation or about our willingness to facilitate Ukraine’s rapid accession to the European Union without fulfilling the necessary requirements,” the Slovak prime minister said.

The reason for the strong statement was the dispute over supplies of Russian oil through Ukrainian territory via the Druzhba pipeline. As Fico noted, “for two months now, Russian oil has not been reaching us through the pipeline.”

Supplies to Slovakia and Hungary were halted on January 27. In mid-February, the Slovak authorities declared a crisis situation because of the oil shortage.

Ukraine explains the stoppage by citing technical reasons after damage to the pipeline during military operations against Russia. At the same time, according to the Slovak prime minister, access to the site of the alleged damage has still not been granted.

“The Ukrainian president stopped the flow of oil, explaining it as damage to the pipeline, but to this day no one has been allowed access to the site of the supposed damage,” Fico said.

Fico stressed that the situation affects not only Slovakia and Hungary, but the whole of Central Europe. According to him, if oil supplies through Druzhba had continued, the region would not now be facing a difficult situation with gasoline prices, which are rising amid the Middle East crisis.

“We would have had no problems with high fuel prices, but once again hatred and obsession with Russia are winning,” Fico said.

“We would rather harm ourselves, punish ourselves, force people to pay more for gasoline and diesel, and expose them to shortages of these resources than receive gas and oil from Russia,” the prime minister added.

He said he has “absolutely no doubt” that the European Commission is also pursuing political goals — “that means weakening the current governing coalition, which dares to have its own position.” According to Fico, the European Commission “would be much more satisfied” if Slovakia were governed by the liberal opposition.

Fico’s statement came against the backdrop of existing disagreements within the European Union. On February 23, Hungary vetoed decisions on the 20th package of anti-Russian sanctions and on a €90 billion loan for Ukraine. Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said that Budapest would not support decisions beneficial to Kyiv until oil supplies through Druzhba are resumed.

In mid-March, Fico also said that the European Union should not place Ukraine’s interests above those of member states such as Slovakia or Hungary. He also expressed dissatisfaction that the European Commission had failed to present proposals to reduce electricity prices despite repeated requests from EU heads of state and government.