India, Feb. 23 -- Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Sunday that he would ask the country's state-owned electricity transmission operator, SEPS, to halt emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine, linking continued power support to the restoration of Russian oil transit through Ukrainian territory.

Robert Fico stated that he would visit SEPS on Monday to formally request the suspension if oil flows are not resumed. "If he tells us that we should buy gas and oil somewhere else, not in Russia, even though it is more complicated and expensive, then we have the right to respond," he said, referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The dispute reflects what analysts describe as growing EU internal fractures over Ukraine...