Slovak PM hopes for continuation of Russian gas transit through Ukraine
Photo: Robert Fico, Prime Minister of Slovakia (Getty Images)
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico wants Ukraine to continue transiting Russian gas in 2025. A series of negotiations will be held on this issue, according to Reuters.
"You may witness in the nearest days, including during the Christmas holidays, extraordinarily intensive negotiations on various levels and in various countries that start already next week," Fico said, commenting on the issue of Russian gas supplies to his country.
According to him, the goal of such negotiations is to ensure that supplies from the east continue "to avoid paying more in transit fees for gas from other directions."
"I believe that, even if there is a short-term outage of supplies from the east, we are sufficiently pre-stocked, that we will find a common solution for multiple countries of the European Union and we maintain transit of gas through Slovak territory and also the transit of gas through Ukrainian territory," Fico added.
At the same time, Slovak Minister of Economy Denisa Saková noted that the European Commission, Ukraine, and EU member states will take part in the talks.
Russian gas transit through Ukraine
Despite the start of a full-scale war with Russia, Ukraine has maintained the transit of Russian gas to European countries. The relevant contract expires on December 31.
As Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal emphasized in early October, Ukraine will not continue transiting Russian gas in 2025.
Read more about how this decision will affect European countries in the material by RBC-Ukraine.
