Slovakia will halt diesel supplies to Ukraine unless oil transit restored, PM says

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Monday (29 July) his country would halt diesel supplies to Ukraine if Kyiv fails to restore oil flows from Russian group Lukoil through its territory.

Slovakia and Hungary – two countries that have opposed western allies’ military aid to Ukraine as it fights Russia’s invasion – have been stepping up pressure since Kyiv put Lukoil on a sanctions list last month, stopping the company’s oil from passing through to Slovak and Hungarian refineries.

“If the transit of Russian crude through Ukraine is not renewed in a short time, (Slovak refiner) Slovnaft will not continue in supplies of diesel to Ukraine,” Fico said in a Facebook video message.

Oil deliveries through Ukraine from other Russian suppliers than Lukoil have not been interrupted.

Slovak deliveries account for a tenth of Ukraine’s diesel consumption, Fico said.

He added that he proposed a technical solution to restore the stopped oil flows to Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal on Friday. He did not give any details on his proposal but said it would have to involve multiple countries.

“I welcome reports that relevant trading firms are already thinking about how to implement this technical solution in the shortest possible time,” Fico said.

The dispute has shown how much some EU countries still depend on Russian energy more than two years after the bloc decided to stop oil imports from Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine.

Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic have exemptions to a ban on Russia pipeline oil imports to give them time to find alternatives.

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