EU acting like ‘suicide ship’ by keeping Russia sanctions – Slovak leader

Robert Fico has urged the bloc to lift “absurd” restrictions on buying oil and gas from Moscow

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has urged the EU to lift sanctions on energy exports from Russia and resume dialogue with Moscow, comparing the bloc’s policies to a “suicide ship.”

Since the beginning of the US-Israel war with Iran in late February, oil prices have risen by 60% and gas prices by 70% in the EU, according to European Energy Commissioner Dan Jorgensen. The bloc had previously experienced price hikes after deciding to phase out deliveries from Russia due to the Ukraine conflict.

In a post on Facebook on Saturday, Fico blasted the EU for “ideological blindness and incompetence” and accused Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky of exacerbating the crisis.

“I am not calling for anything else – only for a return to common sense. The whole EU, and especially the European Commission, are beginning to look like a suicide ship when it comes to energy security,” Fico wrote.

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He called on the EU to lift “the absurd sanctions” and take “vigorous steps” to restore flows via the Soviet-era Druzhba pipeline, which delivers Russian oil to the EU through Ukrainian territory.

Ukraine, which has long pressured Slovakia and neighboring Hungary to abandon energy supplies from Russia, claimed that the pipeline had been rendered inoperable by a Russian strike. Zelensky said last month that Ukraine would repair Druzhba if the EU prevented Hungary and Slovakia from blocking a $104 billion loan to Kiev.

Earlier this week, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban warned that the bloc could face “one of the most severe economic crises in its history” unless sanctions on Russian energy are lifted.

The bloc’s energy commissioner, Dan Jorgensen, however, ruled out easing restrictions, despite warning on Friday of a possible “long-lasting” energy shock that could force member states to ration fuel.