Stopping gas transit: Ukraine is not a member of the working group of the European Commission and Slovakia - media

The European Commission has explained what the working group on stopping gas transit from Russia through Ukraine will focus on, which was agreed on January 9 by the Energy Commissioner and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, UNN reports with reference to Radio Liberty.

"It has been decided to set up a high-level working group to consider this issue (the impact on energy after the completion of the gas transit agreement - ed.) in order to address the issues raised by Prime Minister Fico... Our services in the Commission are already working on setting up this group," said Anna-Kaisa Itkonen, a spokesperson for the European Commission, answering media questions.

According to a European Commission spokeswoman, the group will meet "in the coming weeks" and will include high-ranking officials from the Commission and Slovakia. This implies that there will be no representatives of Ukraine. Radio Liberty is waiting for a comment from the Ministry of Energy on this issue, which it will publish as soon as it receives it.

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On January 9, Ukraine's Ambassador to the EU Vsevolod Chentsov confirmed to the media that Kyiv "maintains contacts with the European Commission on our agenda.

"Of course, we are constantly in very close contact with Ukraine. Both at the political level - between the European Commissioner and his colleague (the Minister of Energy of Ukraine - ed.), and at the technical level," Itkonen emphasized.

Radio Liberty also asked a representative of the European Commission whether the EU could financially compensate Slovakia for the losses claimed by Prime Minister Robert Fico. Namely, 500 million euros for paying for gas transit not from Russia. The possibility of such a development was neither confirmed nor denied, noting that this is "a process that is just beginning.

"We will now monitor and identify different options based on a joint assessment of the situation. This will be discussed by the working group... and then we will see how the EU can help. The key task of the high-level working group will be to identify and clarify the economic impact and seek a common understanding of the situation... We will be able to say more when things start moving," Itkonen summarized.

On January 9, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and European Commissioner for Energy Dan Jorgensen agree to set up a working group to study the consequences of stopping Russian gas transit through Ukraine for the EU and individual member states.

After consultations with the relevant European Commission official, Fico, speaking to journalists in Brussels, again criticized Volodymyr Zelenskyy for stopping gas transit from Russia.

The Slovakian prime minister demanded that supplies be resumed and repeated his threats if this did not happen. In particular, he threatened to stop exporting electricity to Ukraine, limit aid to Ukrainian refugees in Slovakia, and did not rule out vetoing decisions related to Ukraine at the EU level that require unanimous approval by member states. These include, in particular, the extension of anti-Russian sanctions. The next time the EU will do this is at the end of January.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has not commented on the latest threats, but he has previously suggested that Robert Fico, who was recently received by Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin, "was instructed to open a second energy front against Ukraine.