Slovakia’s government offered a solution to Ukraine on Friday to restore blocked Russian oil supplies to Slovak and Hungarian refineries.
Both Slovakia and Hungary have been affected by Ukraine imposing sanctions on Russian oil company Lukoil, halting its flows through the country.
It comes more than two years after the European Union started stopping Russian oil imports following Russian President Vladimir Putin’s all-out invasion of Ukraine, exposing some EU member states’ continued dependence on Russia’s energy supplies.
The Slovak government office told Reuters in a statement on Friday that Prime Minister Robert Fico had discussed the issue with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal and Fico had proposed “a technical solution in which several states including Slovakia would have to participate.”
Slovak and Hungarian officials have criticized Ukraine for halting Lukoil’s supplies, saying the ensuing cutoffs threaten their own energy security. Both countries have called on the European Commission to begin formal talks with Ukraine. Commission spokesperson Olof Gill said on Thursday that the EU executive was still “looking at the facts” and would “make a decision when [it was] ready.”
The Commission granted both central European countries an exemption from the bloc’s Russian oil ban in 2022 provided they find alternative suppliers. Neither country has, while Hungary’s oil and gas imports from Russia have increased.