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Fico's diesel threat and Putin's missile warning
Summary
Two statements in the final days of July 2024 showed how Ukraine's war was pulling its neighbours and Western partners into wider disputes over energy and security.
What did Europe's pressure points look like on 2 August 2024? Two recent statements gave a picture, one about energy and the other about missiles.
On 31 July 2024, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico threatened to suspend Slovakia's diesel exports to Ukraine. His condition concerned the Ukrainian government's continued suspension of pipeline oil transport from the Russian company Lukoil. Slovakia claimed that the suspension was causing a national energy crisis. The threat tied a neighbour's fuel supplies to Ukraine directly to a dispute over Russian oil transit.
The second statement came earlier, on 28 July 2024. Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to position long-range missiles that could strike throughout Europe. He was responding to the announcement by the United States of plans to set up long-range missiles in Germany beginning in 2026. The exchange involved Russia–United States and Germany–Russia relations.
The two episodes differ in scale, but both showed how the war affected Ukraine's relations with neighbours and the wider security debate. In one, a single transit decision was linked to the threat of cutting Ukraine's diesel imports from Slovakia. In the other, a Western deployment plan for 2026 drew a public Russian warning of its own deployments.
