Russian President Vladimir Putin promised Slovakia that Russia’s Gazprom would discover alternative routes to ship contracted fuel to Slovakia after the end of transit through Ukraine, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico stated on Friday (Jan 10).
Fico met Putin in Moscow on Dec. 22 to debate fuel and the conflict in Ukraine after Kyiv determined to not enable Russian fuel flows by way of Ukrainian territory from Jan 1.
Ukraine, which has grappled with a full-scale Russian invasion for practically three years, refused to resume a transit cope with Russia because it seeks to chop revenues going to Moscow to fund the conflict.
Fico has threatened to take retaliatory measures against Kyiv for the transit halt as Slovakia wished to proceed receiving Russian fuel by way of Ukraine to maintain prices down and maintain incomes transit nation income from onward fuel shipments to Europe.
“I spoke to Putin a couple of contract between us and Gazprom, which says that they must someway ship the fuel to us,” Fico advised a parliamentary committee.
“We’re in a position to push one thing by way of the southern movement (route by way of Türkiye), however to date we now have storage, Slovak consumption is secured.”
Fico stated Putin assured that Russia would meets its obligations, though capability within the TurkStream pipeline and connecting route taking Russian fuel by way of Türkiye to Europe was restricted.
“President Putin assured that they’ll honour their commitments,” Fico stated.
