Slovakia Threatens to Cut Benefits for Ukrainians Over Russian Gas Pipeline Shutdown

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico in a file photo. Bundas Engler/AP Photo

Slovakia is threatening retaliatory measures against Kyiv, such as the “significant lowering of support for Ukrainian citizens,” after it halted the flow of Russian gas through its territory to Slovakia.

On Jan. 1, the major contract that piped gas through Ukraine from Russia ended after Kyiv’s state-owned Naftogaz gas company elected not to renew it.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, head of the landlocked country that has historically relied heavily on Russian pipeline gas, described the situation as “sabotage.”

In a video message posted on Facebook on Jan 2, Fico said that “the suspension of Russian gas transit through Ukraine to Slovakia is nothing short of sabotage.”

“It poses a serious threat to our economy, with losses nearing 500 million euros a year,“ he said; that figure is equivalent to about $515 million. ”We need solutions—either the restoration of transit or compensation for our financial damages.”

He said Slovak officials will raise the matter during discussions in Brussels on Jan. 7.

“I declare [my Smer-SSD party members] are ready to debate and agree in the coalition on halting supplies of electricity and on significant lowering of support for Ukrainian citizens in Slovakia,” Fico said.

There are about 125,400 Ukrainian refugees in Slovakia, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees.

“The only alternative for a sovereign Slovakia is renewal of transit or demanding compensation mechanisms that will replace the loss in public finances of nearly 500 million euros,” Fico said.

Fico met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin on Dec 22, 2024. The country has a long-term contract with Russia’s Gazprom.

“Russian President V. Putin confirmed the readiness of the [Russian Federation] to continue to supply gas to the West and Slovakia, which is practically impossible after Jan. 1, 2025, in view of the stance of the Ukrainian president,” Fico said in a statement about the visit.

However, on Dec. 28, 2024, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Fico of opening a “second energy front” against Ukraine on the orders of Russia.

“It appears that Putin gave Fico the order to open the second energy front against Ukraine at the expense of the Slovak people’s interests,” Zelenskyy wrote on social media platform X.

Fico published an open letter to EU leaders on Dec. 29, 2024, calling for them to urgently reevaluate the situation.

He said that Slovakia was currently in a “complicated economic situation,” having been forced to take painful measures to restore public finances.

“I consider it absolutely necessary that the economic impact of important decisions be analyzed and that positions be taken with a thorough knowledge of the matter,” Fico said, adding that he did not know whether “the whole thing has been assessed only ideologically.”

He said that although the volume of gas transiting through Ukraine is only about 3.5 percent of gas consumption, it is an amount that makes a difference in the market and results in “demand satisfaction turning into a tense situation.”

He said Slovakia faces more than 400 million euros (about $411 billion) a year in transit fees and 1 billion euros (about $1.03 billion) in commodity prices.

Ukraine itself stands to lose about 1 billion euros a year in transit fees from Russia, while Gazprom will lose close to $5 billion (about $5.15 billion) in gas sales, according to global energy markets and oil prices site Oilprice. 

End of Supply

Liquified natural gas, which is transported by sea in specialized tankers, has become increasingly important for Europe’s energy supply.

Major ports in France, Belgium, and Spain receive liquified natural gas shipments, which are then converted back to gas and distributed across the continent.

On Dec. 31, 2024, the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Energy, the department responsible for creating and implementing the EU’s energy policy, said that the bloc’s “infrastructure is flexible to accommodate gas of non-Russian origin.”

“It has also been reinforced with significant new LNG import capacities since 2022. Storage levels at 72 percent are slightly higher than the average [69 percent] for this time of the year,” it said.

Samuel Furfari, a senior official at the EU’s Energy Directorate-General from 1982 to 2018, previously told The Epoch Times that liquified natural gas was “the energy changer.”

He said that the situation will “stimulate new supplier countries because, in the past, gas pipelines were considered to be the only means of transport.”

“That’s over now,” Furfari said.

Reuters and Ryan Morgan contributed to this report.