Gas diplomacy: Zelenskyj sharply criticizes Fico after his Putin visit

Tensions are rising between Kiev and Bratislava following a visit to the Kremlin by Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj assumed that Fico had personal motives for the trip and that he was dependent on Moscow. Fico also received strong criticism from the Czech Republic and Lithuania.

Zelenskyj wrote on Platform X: “Why is this head of state so dependent on Moscow? What is he paid and how does he pay?” Fico himself had described his visit to Russia as a response to Zelensky’s refusal to continue sending Russian gas to Slovakia.

Controversial gas transit through Ukraine

Despite Moscow’s war of aggression against Ukraine, Slovakia continues to receive Russian gas via pipelines. Ukraine recently declared that it would no longer extend the transit contract for the transmission of Russian gas to its neighboring country Slovakia, which expires at the end of the year.

Zelensky wrote that Fico himself benefits from the Russian gas discount, but not his country. “Such discounts are not in vain – the payments to Russia are made through (abandonment of) sovereignty or through opaque schemes.” He suggested that Fico was a security problem for Slovakia and Europe.

Czech Republic: Don’t cower before a mass murderer

Sharp criticism of the visit to Moscow also came from the Czech Republic. “The Czech government has sought independence from Russian energy supplies so that we do not have to grovel before a mass murderer,” Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky wrote at X. Lithuania’s President Gitanas Nauseda also criticized Fico’s trip.

But there is also criticism in Slovakia itself: several hundred people gathered for a protest in front of the government office in Bratislava. The initiative “Mier Ukrajine” (Peace of Ukraine), which in the past has primarily been committed to arms deliveries to Kiev, called for this. The demonstrators waved the flags of Slovakia, Ukraine and the EU.

“We reject Prime Minister Fico’s unsavory offering of Slovakia to Putin as a Christmas present!” said the protest call on Facebook. The small liberal opposition party “Freedom and Solidarity” was also considering a motion of no confidence in parliament against the head of government.