President meets Slovakian PM in the wake of Kyiv’s attack on Russia’s oil pipeline; Putin warns any western troops in Ukraine would be ‘legitimate targets’. What we know on day 1,291
Ukraine’s president has vowed to continue retaliating to Russian attacks on his country’s energy facilities despite criticism from neighbours and Moscow oil customers Slovakia and Hungary. Oil shipments to both countries have been disrupted in recent weeks due to Kyiv’s attacks on the Druzhba pipeline, which runs from Russia through Ukraine before reaching Slovakia. “Ukraine responds to Russia’s attacks on our energy facilities, and will keep doing so,” Volodymyr Zelenskyy said at a joint news conference with the Slovakian prime minister, Robert Fico, with whom he held talks in the Ukrainian city of Uzhhorod. Zelenskyy urged Fico to cut off oil supplies from Russia.
Fico said he saw a quick end to the war, but admitted that he and Zelenskyy had “different opinions” on that. Slovakia’s PM, who met Vladimir Putin in China earlier this week, also said he could foresee a normalisation of relations with Moscow. “We are simply saying in advance what the possibilities are, where we will start talking again, what tasks we will do together.”
