Zelenskyy responds to Fico's proposal for meeting

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has responded to an invitation to meet with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico.

Ok. Come to Kyiv on Friday,’ Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote.

• Earlier, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico invited Volodymyr Zelenskyy to a meeting in Slovakia near the state border with Ukraine in a video message. 
• The five-year agreement on the transit of Russian gas between Ukraine and Russia expired on 1 January 2025. Starting at 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.