Putin calls on Slovak PM to shut down reverse gas and electricity to Kyiv

Russian ruler Vladimir Putin has suggested restricting reverse gas and electricity supplies to Ukraine from Europe in order to force Kyiv to stop striking energy infrastructure linked to the West.

According to Russian Interfax, Slovakia is one of the main channels for reverse gas supplies from Europe to Ukraine.

"The Ukrainian side is trying to damage us, but they are also harming our partners. Ukraine receives a significant volume of energy resources through its Eastern European neighbours. Stop reverse gas supplies to them, cut off their electricity supplies, and they will immediately understand that there are certain limits to their behaviour in violating others’ interests," Putin said at a meeting with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico in Beijing.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico pledged to raise the issue of the Druzhba oil pipeline’s security during his upcoming talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on 5 September.

Last week, Fico said he did not understand the attacks on the Druzhba oil pipeline. The foreign ministers of Slovakia and Hungary complained to the European Commission over the strikes.

In addition to Fico, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met with Putin in China, and Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić also plans to do so.

Fico and Vučić were the only European heads of state to attend the 9 May celebrations in Moscow as Putin’s guests.