OREANDA-NEWS  Slovakia may take retaliatory measures if Ukraine does not resolve the issue of transit of Russian oil, President Peter Pellegrini said at a press conference.

"I consider what Ukraine has done in relation to Slovakia to be a very serious matter and a very unpleasant interference in our good relations. I firmly believe that Ukraine will be able to put this in order as soon as possible, because Slovakia, as a sovereign state, will eventually have to take some kind of retaliatory measures. It would not benefit either Ukraine or its citizens," the head of state said. In turn, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense of Slovakia Robert Kaliniak warned that if Ukraine does not resolve the issue of oil, it could harm relations between Kiev and Bratislava, including commercial ones. Kalinyak called the decision to stop the transit of oil from the Russian company Lukoil irresponsible. Last week, Hungary and Slovakia announced that they had stopped receiving oil from Lukoil due to a stop in transit by Ukraine. The Slovak Ministry of Economy noted that Kiev had put the Russian oil company on the sanctions list. On Monday, July 22, Hungary and Slovakia requested consultations with the European Commission due to the current situation. This stage precedes the creation of a special commission to deal with the Kiev authorities. As Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto explained, the transit stop violates the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU. If no solution is found, Brussels will have the right to review some of its obligations, for example, in the field of customs duties.

In addition, he said that Budapest would block the payment of compensation to European countries for arms supplies to Ukraine until Kiev resolves the issue of transit of Lukoil oil.