Slovakia Warns of Financial Damage If Ukraine Gas Transit Stops

Slovakia’s prime minister urged European allies to find a way to keep Russian gas flowing across Ukraine after a key transit deal expires at year’s end.

Slovakia, one of the key remaining buyers of Russian gas via the Ukrainian route, earns as much as €500 million in transit fees a year, Premier Robert Fico said Wednesday. That boost to state coffers is at risk should alternative arrangements not be made.

“Are we just going to let that pipeline dry up?” he said. “In the name of what? Because you don’t like the Russians? Fine, I like them.”

Time is running out to avoid a halt in piped flows before the transit deal lapses. While Europe as a whole has curbed reliance on Russia, countries in the east of the region still take some volumes and are pushing for a new accord. Slovakia has held talks with Moscow and Kyiv, and Fico plans to discuss “technical solutions” with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen Thursday.

Fico said keeping gas flowing is also important for Ukraine, as it has “a huge interest in maintaining the transit routes.”

Several ideas have been floated to keep supplies coming, including with the help of intermediaries. One option would be to call the Russian gas “something else. It won’t be Russian, it will be some other gas,” Fico said.

Since he returned to power last year, the prime minister has been an outspoken critic of the European Union’s military support for Ukraine, saying the aid only prolongs the conflict.

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