Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fitzo on 21 February reiterated that he would initiate a halt to emergency energy aid to Ukraine if oil supplies via the Druzhba oil pipeline are not resumed.
“If oil supplies to Slovakia are not resumed on Monday, I will ask the state-owned joint-stock company SEPS to stop emergency energy supplies to Ukraine,” he said on his social media accounts.
Fitzo said President Vladimir Zelensky “refuses to understand the peacemaking approach” of Bratislava and allegedly acts maliciously towards Slovakia:
“First he stopped gas supplies to Slovakia, causing us damage of 500 million euros a year. Now he has cut off oil supplies, causing further losses and logistical difficulties.”
According to Fitzo, Ukraine needed more emergency aid in January to stabilise its energy grid than in the whole of 2025.
At the same time, he cited Slovakia’s blocking of a 90 billion euro loan from the European Union to Ukraine.
“Given President Zielenski’s unacceptable behaviour towards Slovakia, which treats it as a hostile country, I think it is absolutely right that I refused to involve the Slovak Republic in the latest €90 billion military loan for Ukraine,” Fico said.
The Slovak prime minister recently announced his intention to stop supplying electricity to Ukraine if the Druzhba pipeline does not resume operation. He said, citing Slovak intelligence, that repair work on the pipeline had been completed and accused Ukraine of blocking supplies as a “blackmail weapon”.
Although Kiev claimed a Russian drone strike caused the disruption, which began on 27 January, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fitzo said on 15 February that Ukraine allegedly delayed the resumption of oil flow to force Hungary to drop its veto on Ukraine’s membership in the European Union. Fitzo called it “political blackmail”.
As explained by Mikhail Honchar, an energy expert and president of the Globalistics Centre “Strategy XXI”, On the night of 27 January 2026, the Russian Federation hit the linear production and dispatch station of Ukrtransnafta in Brody – the main oil pumping station on the Ukrainian section of the Druzhba pipeline – with a drone. After the impact, a large-scale fire broke out, burning crude oil in the largest tank with a volume of 75,000 cubic metres. It lasted for 10 days. The strike led to a halt in the operation of the Druzhba pipeline and, consequently, in the transit of Russian oil.