Slovakia is ending emergency electricity supplies to Kyiv

According to Ukraine’s national energy operator, Slovakia has unilaterally terminated a mutual-assistance agreement for emergency situations.

Ukrenergo said on its Telegram channel on Tuesday, March 17, that it received a notice from the Slovak operator SEPS that the contract will cease to be in force starting in May.

“The reasons why our colleagues are terminating the agreement were left unexplained by SEPS’s management. For its part, NEC Ukrenergo has never committed any violations of the contractual terms with SEPS, acting in a spirit of good-neighborliness and respect for European legislation,” the statement emphasized.

According to Ukrenergo, no changes are expected for the Ukrainian side after the Slovak operator’s decision, because emergency electricity supplies from Slovakia were carried out “quite rarely and in very limited volumes.” The last such case was in January, when hundreds of thousands of Kyiv residents were left without electricity due to Russian strikes.

The decision by the Slovak company will not affect commercial electricity supplies. “Electricity imports from Slovakia to Ukraine have been and continue to be carried out without restrictions, in accordance with the results of daily and long-term auctions,” the Ukrainian operator added.

The Slovak side has repeatedly publicly warned Ukraine about ending emergency electricity supplies, Ukrenergo noted.

At the end of February, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico ordered the halt of emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine after the transit of Russian oil through the Druzhba pipeline was suspended as a result of damage from Russian strikes.