EU state accuses Kiev of blackmail: Ukraine has cut supplies of Russian oil to Slovakia and neighboring Hungary

EU state accuses Kiev of blackmail

RT

Ukraine’s blocking of oil supplies from Russia to Hungary and Slovakia is unacceptable and amounts to blackmail, Slovak Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok has said.

Kiev stopped supplies of crude through the Druzhba pipeline to its neighbors last week, citing sanctions against Russian energy giant Lukoil.

Slovakia and Hungary are the only EU countries that are opposed to the bloc’s policy of providing military aid to Ukraine in its conflict with Russia. 

“Ukraine has chosen to blackmail Slovakia and Hungary,” Sutaj Estok said in a video message on social media on Wednesday.

“I consider Ukraine’s decision to cut off Lukoil’s oil supplies to Slovakia and Hungary unacceptable. I refuse to let Slovakia and the Slovak people serve as an instrument of revenge between Ukraine and Russia,” he added.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico last week held a telephone conversation with his Ukrainian counterpart, Denis Shmigal, to stress that Bratislava will not be “a hostage of Ukrainian-Russian relations.” 

The suspension of oil transit by Kiev has also been condemned by Slovak President Peter Pellegrini, who noted that his country had helped Ukraine with the reverse flow of gas and electricity supplies.