Premier: Gas That Ukraine Buys on EU Market Mostly of Russian Origin

Bratislava, March 3 (TASR) - Almost all the gas that Ukraine buys on the EU market is of Russian origin, said Premier Robert Fico (Smer-SD) on Monday ahead of Thursday's (March 6) EU summit in Brussels, adding that Slovakia will propose that an explicit request to Ukraine to resume the transit of Russian or other gas through its territory should be included in the summit's conclusions. "Ukraine is preventing Europe and Slovakia from transiting Russian gas because it means support for Russia in its war against Ukraine. However, Ukraine buys Russian gas and supports Russia itself," stated the prime minister. Fico specified that on average, foreign traders using EU law supply 10.5 million cubic metres of gas to Ukraine every day, while the record was around 15 million cubic metres. "Foreign traders buy gas on the European market, put it into the Slovak pipeline and push it towards Ukraine. The gas that Ukraine buys on the European market is gas of Russian origin," he stressed. The premier emphasised that Slovakia will propose including an explicit request to Ukraine to resume the transit of Russian or other gas via its territory to Slovakia and Europe in the conclusions of the EU summit. "Europe is damaged, Slovakia is damaged," he stressed. Rejecting Slovakia's proposal, he said, will significantly complicate the adoption of the conclusions at the Brussels summit. Fico pointed out that the EU is proposing massive new financial and military support for Ukraine at the March 6 summit in Brussels, but the EU is not asking Ukraine for anything in return. "And it is still tolerating gross damage to the interests of the EU as a whole because we aren't competitive due to the high price of gas," stressed the prime minister. am/df