Slovakia is now receiving Russian gas via Turkey after Ukraine halted deliveries through its territory, the country's gas transit company SPP said Thursday.
Ukraine stopped the westward flow of Russian gas at the start of the year, dealing a blow to Slovakia, which relies heavily on Russian energy. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the decision aimed to deprive Moscow of revenue used to finance its war.
The move was met with criticism from Slovakia, an EU member state. Prime Minister Robert Fico — one of the Kremlin's few allies in the European Union — traveled to Moscow late last year to negotiate gas supplies with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Russia's state energy giant Gazprom has since resumed partial gas deliveries to SPP, the company's spokesman, Ondrej Sebesta, told AFP on Thursday.
"They are conducted by the southern route through TurkStream and via Hungary to Slovakia," he said, declining to provide further details.
Slovak newspaper Dennik N quoted SPP chief executive Vojtech Ferencz as saying that gas supplies via TurkStream began on Feb. 1 and that volumes would double in April.
The TurkStream pipeline runs 930 kilometers (580 miles) under the Black Sea from the Russian resort city of Anapa to Kiyikoy in northwestern Turkey. It then connects to overground pipelines supplying Hungary and Slovakia via the Balkans.
Fico, who leads a fragile three-party coalition, has also criticized the loss of gas transit fees that Slovakia previously collected for deliveries further west. His visit to Moscow triggered nationwide protests in January, with tens of thousands of Slovaks taking to the streets to demand his resignation.
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