(Bloomberg) — Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to hold talks on resuming natural gas transit after a deal between Kyiv and Moscow expired at the start of this year.
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Fico has sought to push Zelenskiy to restart flows, citing rising energy costs for Slovakia and the region. The Slovak premier, who controversially met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow last month, has warned Ukraine of potential reciprocal measures, including vetoing financial aid at the European Union level or halting emergency electricity supplies.
Still, in the invitation to the Ukrainian leader, the prime minister downplayed criticism from Zelenskiy about his relationship with Moscow, proposing direct talks in Slovakia.
“Such a meeting would create favorable conditions for an open discussion on gas supplies to Slovakia and other countries through Ukrainian territory, and possible technical solutions,” Fico said in the invitation, which was released by his press service on Monday.
“Ok. Come to Kyiv on Friday,” Zelenskiy said in a post on social media platform X in response to Fico’s invitation.
The premier had urged European allies to find a way to keep the gas flowing, saying his country earns as much as €500 million ($510 million) in transit fees a year. His country’s largest gas utility, Slovensky Plynarensky Priemysel AS, has said it will pay about €90 million more a year to guarantee stable imports via different routes.
–With assistance from Kateryna Chursina.
(Updates with comments from Zelenskiy in fifth paragraph)
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