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Fico's diesel threat over Lukoil oil transit
Summary
A look back at a dispute over Russian oil transit to Slovakia, and at a missile warning from Moscow, as of 2 August 2024.
What was driving tension between Kyiv and its western neighbours on 2 August 2024? Two threads stood out in the days leading up to that date, one over energy and one over security.
On 31 July 2024, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico threatened to suspend Slovakia's diesel exports to Ukraine. His condition concerned Lukoil: if the Ukrainian government kept suspending pipeline oil transport from the Russian oil company, he said, the move would continue to cause what Slovakia described as a national energy crisis.
The warning put Slovakia's fuel supplies to Ukraine directly at stake in a dispute over Russian oil passing through Ukrainian territory.
A few days earlier, on 28 July 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin had issued a separate threat. He said Russia could position long-range missiles capable of striking throughout Europe. The statement followed the United States' announcement of plans to set up long-range missiles in Germany beginning in 2026.
Together, the two episodes showed pressure on Ukraine's partners from different directions: Slovakia's leadership was linking fuel exports to the Lukoil question, while Moscow was answering Washington's plans for Germany with a threat aimed at the whole continent.
