From left: Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk, and European Commission representative Klaus-Dieter Borchardt officially inaugurated the reverse gas flow on the Vojany–Uzhhorod route in Veľké Kapušany, Michalovce district, on September 2, 2014. (source: TASR - František Iván)
A decade ago, Slovakia’s then-prime minister, Robert Fico, championed the Vojany–Uzhhorod pipeline in eastern Slovakia as a game-changer for European energy security. The pipeline’s reverse flow capability allowed Ukraine to tap into non-Russian gas supplies – a crucial step towards reducing Moscow’s influence.
Now, as Russia’s war on Ukraine escalates, that same pipeline has become a lifeline once again. With Russian airstrikes crippling Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, the recently reactivated Vojany pipeline is keeping the country’s westernmost Transcarpathia region supplied.
But this gas lifeline has become entangled in a political standoff, writes Hospodárske noviny daily.
On January 1, Kyiv stopped transporting Russian gas to Slovakia, triggering a sharp response from Fico – now back in power – who declared that Slovakia had the “moral right” to block Ukraine’s supplies in retaliation.
