If the transit of oil to Slovakia does not resume on Monday, Prime Minister Robert Fico will call on the state grid operator SEPS to stop the emergency supply of electricity to Ukraine, according to a government statement cited by CTK.
Oil from Russia is delivered to Hungary and Slovakia via the Druzhba pipeline. Ukrainian officials said the outage was caused by Russian bombing since late January.
However, Hungary and Slovakia accuse the Ukrainian leadership of deliberately preventing continued deliveries. The oil supply of both countries is highly dependent on the pipeline.
Ukraine considers the purchase of gas and oil from Russia by two EU countries as helping to finance Russia’s war against it.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán hinted a few days ago that his country could disrupt the electricity supply to neighboring Ukraine if Kiev continues to disrupt Hungary’s supply.
Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó also announced Friday that his country will block a 90 billion euro ($106 billion) EU loan to Ukraine until oil transit to Hungary via the Druzhba pipeline is restored.
Orbán expressed the view that he believed that Ukraine was interested in him losing the parliamentary elections scheduled for April 12, and therefore wanted to ensure the increase in heating costs in Hungary by blocking the Druzhba pipeline.
(Vijesti.ba / Fena)
