FEBRUARY 21, 2026 1:49 PM CET
BY BARTOSZ BRZEZIŃSKISlovak Prime Minister Robert Fico on Saturday threatened to cut off emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine if Kyiv does not restore oil flows to Slovakia by Monday, escalating a deepening energy dispute in Central Europe.

“If the Ukrainian president does not resume oil supplies to Slovakia on Monday, on that same day I will ask the relevant Slovak companies to stop emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine,” Fico wrote on social media.

Fico said he would instruct SEPS, Slovakia’s state-owned grid operator, to halt the emergency power exports that have helped stabilize Ukraine’s energy system amid repeated Russian attacks. In January alone, the volume of emergency supplies needed to support Ukraine’s grid was twice as high as during the whole of 2025, he said



FEBRUARY 20, 2026 5:50 PM CET
BY GREGORIO SORGI AND BJARKE SMITH-MEYERBRUSSELS ― Hungary has thrown the EU’s planned €90 billion loan to Ukraine into crisis after threatening to block the deal until the flow of Russian oil resumes through the Druzhba pipeline.

The Hungarian government issued the warning on Friday evening, as Prime Minister Viktor Orbán tries to weaponize anti-Ukraine sentiment ahead of a key election where he risks losing power after more than 15 years.

“Ukraine is blackmailing Hungary by halting oil transit in coordination with Brussels and the Hungarian opposition to create supply disruptions in Hungary and push fuel prices higher before the elections,” Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó wrote on X. “We will not give in to this blackmail.