Slovakia says it has strong interest in maintaining transit of Russian oil, gas via Ukraine
Oct 3 (Reuters) - Slovakia has a strong interest in continuing to let oil and gas flow from Russia to the west via Ukraine, Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Thursday, adding that it faced pressure from the European Commission for those supply flows to end.
"We have a fundamental interest in maintaining transit routes for gas and oil through Ukraine, and we tell this to our Ukrainian partners," Fico told reporters, ahead of a joint meeting of the Slovak and Ukrainian cabinets on Monday.
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The central European country faces the threat of disruptions to key Russian energy supplies due to its reliance on transit pipelines through Ukraine, which has been fighting against Russia's invasion since February 2022.
Ukraine has already said it does not want to renew a gas transit deal with Russia at the end of the year.
Fico said alternative routes were too expensive and Slovakia wanted to remain a transit country itself.
"There is huge pressure from the European Commission that nothing came from east to west," he said.
Earlier this year, Slovakia and Hungary had their Russian oil supplies cut after Ukraine banned Lukoil supplies from going through the country when it put the group on a sanctions list.
That disruption was resolved after Hungarian oil and gas group MOL, which owns refineries in Hungary and Slovakia, reached deals with suppliers and pipeline operators under which it took ownership of the crude oil volumes at the Belarus-Ukraine border.
(Reporting by Jan Lopatka and Jason Hovet in Prague; Editing by Hugh Lawson)