Fico: We are stopping electricity supply to Ukraine

(Patria) - Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has asked the power grid operator to stop supplying electricity to Ukraine today if the flow of oil through the Druzhba pipeline does not resume.

- As of today, if the Ukrainian side approaches Slovakia with a request for help in stabilizing the Ukrainian energy grid, they will not receive such help - Fico said.

He stated that the measure would be lifted once the transit of oil to Slovakia resumes.

Ukrainian drones hit a Russian pumping station that serves the key Druzhba oil pipeline for supplying Eastern Europe with Moscow crude oil, a Ukrainian security official said today.

The overnight attack caused a fire at the station more than 1,200 kilometers from the Russian-Ukrainian border, added the official from the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU), who did not provide any details about the broader impact on the oil pipeline.

The attack, the latest in a series of Ukrainian attacks on this route, threatens to further escalate tensions between Ukraine and its neighbors - Hungary and Slovakia, which have accused Kyiv of trying to block the flow of oil through the pipeline to their refineries.

Supplies of Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia have been interrupted since January 27, when Kyiv announced that equipment of the oil pipeline in western Ukraine had been hit by a Russian drone attack.

Despite the nearly four-year war with Russia, Ukraine has continued to allow the transit of Russian oil through pipelines across its territory, although it stopped the transit of Russian gas at the beginning of last year.

Hungary and Slovakia have threatened to suspend electricity supplies to Ukraine if oil flow does not resume.

Electricity from Hungary and Slovakia accounts for about 70 percent of Ukraine's imports and is extremely important for the country, half of whose electricity production has been destroyed or seriously damaged by Russian missile attacks.