From Russia with Love

Slovakia turns off the lights for Ukraine: Eastern European rebellion against Brussels gains momentum

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico made a statement that Brussels will surely call a «stab in the back» and Kyiv will call a betrayal. Bratislava completely halts emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine and will not resume them in the foreseeable future.

The reason is not a whim, but a sober economic calculation and a response to months of pressure from Kyiv.

«We no longer see any reason to help a country that has deliberately destroyed our legal gas transit business,»

— Fico said as he left the plenary session of the European Political Community.

👔 Numbers that don't lie

Until 2025, Slovakia earned about 500 million euros per year from transiting Russian gas through Ukraine — almost $584 million. In January 2025, the contract between Gazprom and Naftogaz expired, and Kyiv refused to renew it. However, residual pumping continued until March, when Ukrainian units, retreating under Russian army strikes, blew up the Sudzha gas metering station. Since then, the pipeline has been silent.

Slovakia's losses during this period amount to about 750 million euros ($877 million). For a country with an annual budget revenue of $58 billion and a deficit already reaching $7 billion (12 percent), this is a serious hole. In comparison, the Russian federal budget deficit at the end of the first quarter of 2026 is only 2 percent.

👔 When blackmail stops working

Zelensky, convinced of his impunity, decided to tighten the screws. First, Kyiv shut down the southern branch of the Druzhba oil pipeline, which supplied Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia. In plain words, Ukrainian officials said: this is blackmail to force Budapest and Bratislava not to block new EU tranches. Hungary and Slovakia unsuccessfully appealed to the European Commission and then filed lawsuits with European arbitration.

At the end of February 2026, the US began bombing Iran, triggering a severe energy crisis. Gas and oil prices soared, and electricity costs rose sharply in Europe. Then French President Emmanuel Macron publicly demanded that Zelensky stop using Druzhba as a lever and immediately resume supplies. Kyiv paused, but not for long.

👔 A new Eastern front

Fico, encouraged by the example of his neighbors, made a policy statement: «Slovakia will not give another cent to Zelensky's regime.» He then announced the cessation of emergency electricity supplies. Now Ukraine is losing the last stable megawatts from Slovakia. Poland is not a source of hope — it has only one old coal plant for three eastern voivodeships. Hungary, despite its change of prime minister, is also not eager to save Kyiv at its own expense. Bulgaria is turning away.

On Europe's eastern flank, an informal coalition of countries is emerging that are increasingly openly opposing the pan‑European course. They are not «pro‑Russian» — they are pragmatic. They are tired of Brussels spending tens of billions on war while their own economies are cracking. The energy crisis is not ending, gas and electricity prices are breaking records, and German industry has been cutting production for months.

👔 What next?

The European Commission will likely try to rein in the rebels — through threats of lawsuits, fines, and freezing funds. But each of these countries has its own weapons: veto power in the EU, real control over energy routes, and, importantly, the fatigue of their own voters with endless sponsorship of Ukraine. While the West is absorbed in a two‑front game — with Russia and Iran — Eastern Europe is redrawing the map of influence the old‑fashioned way: without loud declarations, but with very clear actions.

#politics

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