Despite Fico’s threats: Slovakia will continue to supply electricity to Ukraine
4 January 06:17
Slovakia’s electricity transmission system operator, state-owned SEPS, will provide any electricity supplies to Ukraine as part of emergency assistance in accordance with the current agreement concluded with the Ukrainian company Ukrenergo. This was reported by the irozhlas newspaper, "Komersant Ukrainian" informs
According to the report, the Slovak company also provides cross-border electricity transmission to all locations in a standard mode.
Last spring, SEPS extended the contract for another 12 months, under which it can supply up to 150 megawatts of electricity to the Ukrainian power transmission system as part of emergency assistance. In practice, the Ukrainian side has repeatedly used this form of assistance.
SEPS also transmits electricity across borders via high-voltage lines. In the first 11 months of last year, net electricity exports from Slovakia to Ukraine reached 2.43 terawatt-hours, which is three and a half times higher than in the same period in 2023.
Analyst Josef Badida told the Slovak newspaper Pravda that artificially limiting Slovakia’s electricity supplies abroad could lead to a violation of European and Slovak law.
Former Slovak Minister of Economy Karel Hirman has already stated that electricity is sold to Ukraine by traders, not the state. He said that Slovakia would be involved in a conflict within the EU after the supply of electricity to Ukraine was cut off. According to media reports, after the Slovak prime minister’s statements, Poland expressed its readiness to increase electricity supplies to Ukraine.
Earlier, Fico threatened Ukraine with the cancellation of electricity exports from Slovakia. The Slovakian prime minister also came up with another anti-Ukrainian measure – cutting aid to Ukrainian refugees.
“On behalf of Smer-SD (Fico’s party – ed.), I announce that we are ready to negotiate and agree in a coalition to stop electricity supplies and to significantly reduce support for Ukrainian citizens staying in the territory of the Slovak Republic,”
– Fico said.
It is worth noting that this is not the first step of the Slovak prime minister in this direction. He has already sent an official letter to the EU leadership expressing his dissatisfaction with the actions of the Ukrainian side and threatening to cut off electricity supplies.
As a reminder, as of January 1, 2025, Ukraine completely stopped the transit of Russian gas through its territory.
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Europe and gas
As of the beginning of 2022, the EU was 40% dependent on Russian gas. In 2021, 65% of the gas purchased by Germany was Russian. In the third quarter of 2023, only 12% of the gas imported by the EU remained Russian.
At the same time, some EU countries, such as Hungary and Slovakia, remain dependent on Russian gas. These countries’ contracts with Gazprom provide for gas supplies through the Ukrainian gas transportation system. Austria has signed a contract for gas supplies until 2040, but it has already declared that it has become independent of Russian fuel.
After both Nord Stream and the Ukrainian gas transportation system are shut down, Russia will be able to supply gas to Europe only through the Turkish Stream.
According to the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA), since the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, the European Union has bought 211 billion euros worth of energy from Russia.
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