Meeting with Zelenskyy depends on Slovakia’s consultations with EU, - Fico
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said that he sees no point in meeting with the Ukrainian president without prior agreement with the European Commission on the Druzhba oil pipeline.
According to Censor.NET, Fico made this statement in a post on the social network X.
Fico noted that he is not abandoning the idea of a personal meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky, but considers it necessary to first discuss the situation with the leadership of the European Commission.
"I said that I am interested in meeting with President Zelensky. But this must be preceded by a meeting with the President of the European Commission. On Tuesday, I am going to Paris for a nuclear forum. And then we will try to arrange a meeting with the President of the European Commission during my stay in France," Fico said.
He also stressed that Bratislava, together with Brussels, should exert influence on Kyiv in the matter of resuming transit.
"We must put pressure on President Zelenskyy to allow on-site inspections and continue to pressure him to allow oil to pass through his territory. Because he is harming the entire European Union and, of course, will gain nothing from it. On the contrary, he is losing the support of an increasing number of countries," Fico said.
The Slovak prime minister noted that the location of a potential meeting with the Ukrainian president has not yet been determined. At the same time, he expressed doubt about the advisability of such talks until Ukraine, in his words, "demonstratively" resumes oil transit through its territory.
- We would like to remind you that recently, the Financial Times, citing five unnamed diplomats and EU officials, reported that a number of European countries and the European Commission had asked Kyiv to allow a visit to the Druzhba oil pipeline. The EU ambassador to Ukraine, Katarina Maternova, appealed to the Office of the President of Ukraine to grant permission to inspect Druzhba or to send other European diplomats there, but her request was denied.
What is known about the state of Druzhba?
- On January 27, Russian occupation forces struck a critical infrastructure facility belonging to the Naftogaz group in western Ukraine. The target of the attack was likely Ukraine's largest oil pumping station, located in Brody, which supplies the southern branch of the Druzhba oil pipeline.
- The prime ministers of Hungary and Slovakia, Viktor Orbán and Robert Fico, accused Ukraine of delaying the restoration of the oil pipeline due to "political motives," and on February 18, the authorities of these two countries announced the suspension of oil exports to Ukraine in response to Ukraine's halt of Russian oil transit.
