Slovak President Pellegrini refuses to travel to Ukraine

Slovak President Petr Pellegrini has refused to travel to Ukraine. This was reported by the Slovak news agency TASR on 11 January.

On air of the STVR TV channel, Pellegrini said that his trip to Kiev was impossible under the current circumstances. He explained this by the fact that President Vladimir Zelensky (term of office expired on May 20, 2024) refuses to transit gas to Slovakia.

"In a situation where Volodymyr Zelensky has decided to cut off gas supplies, thus fundamentally jeopardizing Slovakia's energy security, my trip to Ukraine is impossible," Pellegrini said.

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A day earlier, European Commission (EC) spokeswoman Anna-Kaisa Itkonen said at a briefing in Brussels that Ukraine would not participate in the working group organized by the European Union (EU) and Slovakia to find a solution to the energy issue amid the cessation of gas transit from Russia through Ukrainian territory.

Before that, on 9 January, it became known that the European Commission and Slovakia would set up a working group to find a solution to the energy issue amid the cessation of Russian gas transit through Ukraine.

On the same day, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fitzo threatened Kiev to stop humanitarian aid because of the decision to stop the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine. The politician noted that Slovakia, as a member of the European Union, has the right of veto, which it can use to block some decisions taken in the European Union (EU).