In a video message, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to a meeting near the state border between Slovakia and Ukraine.
This was reported by Interfax-Ukraine.
‘The Slovak Republic has demonstrated and continues to demonstrate great solidarity with your citizens living in Ukraine or in Slovakia. The joint negotiations between the governments of the Slovak Republic and Ukraine are yielding good results. I would like to continue a constructive and respectful dialogue with the Prime Minister of Ukraine. Therefore, let me invite you, on behalf of the senior representative of the Slovak executive, to discuss, if possible in the near future, with a full understanding of the seriousness of my working agenda,’ Fico said.
He noted that the meeting could take place on the territory of Slovakia near the state border with Ukraine.
‘It is directly symbolic that a direct train connection from Kyiv to Košice could be used to transport the participants to Slovak territory, which is the result of joint efforts of our governments,’ Fico said.
In his opinion, such a meeting would create ‘good conditions for an open conversation about gas supplies to Slovakia and other countries through Ukraine, about possible technical solutions in view of the expiration of the contract between the relevant Ukrainian and Russian companies by 31 December, about the impact of stopping gas transit through Ukraine on the decline in the competitiveness of the European economy and the development of bilateral Slovak-Ukrainian relations.’
Addressing Zelenskyy, Fico also said that ‘the decision to stop gas transit through Ukraine to Slovakia and other consumers causes significant damage to Ukraine, Slovakia and other EU members’.
At the same time, he stressed that he had no intention of responding to Zelenskyy's statement in which he said that he had offered assistance to the Slovak people, but Fico ‘arrogantly refused’.
- The five-year agreement on the transit of Russian gas between Ukraine and Russia expired on 1 January 2025. From seven o'clock in the morning, gas transmission from the Sudzha entry point on the eastern border to the western and southern exit points was suspended. The agreement could have been extended for another ten years, but due to the full-scale Russian attack, Ukraine will not do so. Read more on this topic in Strange Schemes: Who is behind the attempts to extend the transit of Russian gas.
- Earlier, Fico threatened to veto a future package of military aid to Ukraine from European allies. According to him, this is a response to Ukraine's suspension of Russian gas transit.
- The Slovakian prime minister also said that Bratislava could stop supplying electricity to Ukraine if Kyiv did not agree to resume the transit of Russian gas through its territory. Fico called Zelenskyy a ‘beggar and blackmailer’.
- Slovak President Peter Pellegrini, in turn, said he refused to pay an official visit to Kyiv because Ukraine had stopped transiting Russian gas.
- On Sunday, 12 January, a group of pro-Russian members of the Slovak parliament went on a visit to Moscow, where they are going to meet with State Duma deputies and other representatives of the Russian authorities.