Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he plans to raise the issue of Russian oil imports to Europe during talks with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico on Friday.
Fico, who regularly criticises Zelensky and who met Russian President Vladimir Putin in China earlier this week, is due in the western Ukrainian city of Uzhgorod later in the day.
The European Union has banned most imports of oil from Russia in response to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, but Slovakia and Hungary have been exempted from the ban to give them time to find alternative oil supplies.
This has led to frictions between Bratislava and Kyiv, which has throughout the conflict targeted the Druzhba pipeline carrying Russian oil to the two landlocked EU countries.
“America wants to seriously cut Russia’s income from energy exports — and that is the right path,” Zelensky said in a video address to an economic forum in Italy.
“We will also discuss this issue (with Fico).”
At a summit with allies in Paris on Thursday, Zelensky and other European leaders held a videoconference with US President Donald Trump.
Zelensky said Trump had voiced frustration with EU purchases of Russian oil.
“He is very disappointed with some European countries, particularly Hungary and Slovakia, because they continue to buy Russian oil,” Zelensky said.
A senior White House official also told AFP on condition of anonymity that Trump had insisted that “Europe must stop purchasing Russian oil that is funding the war”.
Zelensky said it was “important” that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban heard “these signals from the United States directly from President Trump”.
Last month, Orban said he had complained to Trump over the attacks on the Druzhba pipeline.
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AFP
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