The European Union has said that they “are prepared” for Kyiv to stop the flow of gas transiting through Ukraine to Hungary and Slovakia, despite Robert Fico warning of “serious conflict.”
From the 1 January 2025 Ukraine will stop the flow of cheap Russian gas as President Volodymyr Zelensky will not allow Vladimir Putin “to earn additional billions on our blood.”
The Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico has arrived in Moscow and met Putin to discuss Russian gas transiting through Ukraine to Slovakia on Monday.
Fico said it is “unacceptable” that President Zelensky is threatening the production of electricity for their nuclear power plants in Slovakia.
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Fico meets Putin in Moscow warning Kyiv is ‘threatening the production of electricity in Slovakia’
Fico, who is pro-Putin, held talks with the Russian dictator in the Kremlin which is “a response” to Zelensky as he is refusing to allow Russian gas to transit through Ukraine.
The European Union has said that they have no comment on the Slovakian Prime Minister’s visit to Moscow.
A representative of the Commission said, “In relation to the issue of PM Fico’s visit to Moscow, we have no comment.
“However, we would like to recall the following facts, attributable on the record to a Commission Spokesperson: The stop of flow via Ukraine on 1 January is the expected situation and the EU is prepared for it.”
For more than a year the European Commission, in coordination with the Member States have been preparing for the cheap Russian gas to be cut off by Ukraine from the beginning of January and have been ensuring there is alternative supplies for member states.
The EU spokesman said, “The European gas infrastructure is flexible enough to provide gas of non-Russian origin to Central and Eastern Europe via alternative routes. It has been reinforced with significant new LNG import capacities since 2022.”
“The impact of the end of the transit via Ukraine on the EU’s security of supply is limited,” the official added.
Last Thursday President Zelensky told Slovakia that Ukraine will not get involved with allowing Russian gas to run through his country.
Zelensky also told Fico that if the gas is not Russian and no payments are going to Moscow and if the gas is from another country, then he would consider this.
Robert Fico warned on Friday, “If Zelenskyy does not let our gas through, a serious conflict could arise. Why should it only go from us there? Why can’t there be some kind of solidarity towards us?”
During the meeting with Putin Fico said, “With such positions, (Zelensky) is financially damaging Slovakia and threatening the production of electricity in nuclear power plants in Slovakia, which is unacceptable.”
Hungary has also joined the war on Russian gas and are “trying to trick” Kyiv into allowing the supplies transit through Ukraine.
The Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is also pro-Putin, is suggesting that once they have bought the gas it is no longer Russian, but Hungarian so it must allowed to pass through the pipelines in Ukraine.
Reuters reports that Orban said, “We are now trying the trick … that what if the gas, by the time it enters the territory of Ukraine, would no longer be Russian but would be already in the ownership of the buyers.
So the gas that enters Ukraine would no longer be Russian gas but it would be Hungarian gas.
