Slovak PM criticizes Kiev for preparing to halt gas transport from Russia, says may cease electricity supply to Ukraine

MOSCOW. Dec 28 (Interfax) - Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has described efforts to weaken Russia as unrealistic and warned that Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky's decision to halt Russian gas transport via Ukraine to the European Union in general and Slovakia in particular would cause billions in damages.

"By stopping gas transit, President Zelensky will cause billions in damages to the EU, including the Slovak Republic, and will make the EU even less competitive. It looks like the bigwigs in the EU don't mind as long as the Slavs continue to destroy each other in the name of the unrealistic goal of weakening Russia," Ukrainian media quoted Fico as saying on his social account following a trip to Moscow and a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"After January 1, we will assess the situation and possible response measures against Ukraine. If necessary, we will stop supplies of electricity, which Ukraine urgently needs during outages," Fico said.

Fico also proposed that Slovakia serve as a venue for peace talks. "If someone wishes to arrange peace talks in the Slovak Republic, we will be ready and hospitable," Fico said.

As reported, speaking on the sidelines of the EU summit on December 19, Zelensky reiterated that Ukraine would discontinue the transport of Russian gas via its territory starting 2025. He said he told the Slovak prime minister that Ukraine was prepared to consider transporting gas originating from any country but Russia, provided that Russia received no payments for its gas until the end of the conflict.

Fico said in reply to this that a halt of gas transport via Ukraine might result in a serious crisis and pointed out that Ukraine imported a substantial amount of electricity through Slovakia. After that, Fico visited Moscow and met with Putin on December 22.

The European Commission did not comment on Fico's visit to Moscow but said the EU was prepared for a halt of Russian gas shipments via Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the controversy over Russian gas transport to Europe via Ukraine starting 2025 has proven to have more aspects than it appeared before. Until lately, Kiev has refused to continue such transit in any form. Speaking to journalists on Thursday, President Putin said that, while various options for continuing deliveries were still being discussed, they were complicated by disputable arbitration proceedings between Naftogaz of Ukraine and Russia's Gazprom .

"There's no contract, and it can't be concluded in three or four days. There'll be none. They [Ukraine] announced that they wouldn't extend the contract, but then they realized that this was a problem for them themselves. They started fussing about and turning practically to anyone they could so that someone conclude a contract with us instead of Naftogaz to have [gas] transported via Ukraine, so that relevant entities from Hungary, Slovakia, Turkey, or Azerbaijan conclude a contract for transporting [gas] via Ukraine. The problem is that Gazprom's contracts are long-term ones, they're valid up to 2035 or up to 2049, and to change the situation surrounding transit, those contracts need to be opened up. This is a very complicated procedure, it's hardly manageable, it's actually unmanageable," Putin said.

"There's another thing. Ukraine has shut one of our gas transit routes to Europe through Sokhranovka. They shut it and then sued us to demand that we pay for what wasn't transported via Ukraine. We have a ship-or-pay contract with them. Now they say: let a third country ship, but they don't want to withdraw their lawsuit from an arbitration court. It means we'll ship gas to any European country, while these funds will be recovered on a non-acceptance basis and sent to Ukraine toward settling the lawsuit against Gazprom, in line with an arbitration court ruling. We said we'll deliver, be it Azerbaijan's SOCAR, or a Turkish, Hungarian, or Slovak company, provided that they take their lawsuit back from the court. They said, 'No, we won't take it back'. Okay, then welcome to the barbershop. Live without our gas," Putin said.

"We've always been in favor of deliveries and in favor of depoliticizing economic matters. We never refused to deliver to Europe," Putin said.

"Now they're punishing Europe by closing transit contracts for our gas deliveries to Europe. The gas price has already soared to $500 per thousand cubic meters," he said.