President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskiy strongly condemned the intentions of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico to cut off electricity supplies to Ukraine in the face of Russia’s winter attacks on energy infrastructure. He wrote about this on Telegram.
Zelenskiy said that such threats look like Moscow’s instructions, as Ukraine needs to import electricity due to the Russian occupation of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and the targeted destruction of Ukrainian thermal and hydroelectric generation facilities by Russian shelling.
The President noted that despite all the difficulties, thanks to the heroic work of Ukrainian power engineers and the assistance of partners from the EU, the US, the UK, Norway, Japan and other countries, Ukraine managed to avoid blackout. Against this backdrop, Zelenskiy called Fico’s intentions Slovakia’s attempt to play along with Russia in harming the Ukrainian people.
The President stressed that supporting Russian aggression is immoral and short-sighted, as such actions deprive Slovakia of significant economic benefits. In particular, Ukraine pays about $200 million annually for electricity imports, of which 19% are from Slovakia.
Zelenskiy also reminded Fico of the need to comply with European rules within the EU’s single energy market. According to him, any attempts to make arbitrary decisions on electricity supply could lead to Slovakia’s isolation from the European community, but would not stop electricity imports to Ukraine.