As the Ukraine gas transit agreement nears its expiry, the Russian president meets with Slovak Prime Minister

Pavel Zarubin, a Russian TV presenter, said that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Slovak Premier Robert Fico met in the Kremlin Sunday. The meeting took place as a contract for Russian gas transiting through Ukraine is nearing its expiration date.

Fico criticised the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy for refusing a contract extension that expires in the next year.

In a video that was posted by Zarubin on Telegram, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that the discussion would be centered on the gas transit and current international situation.

He stated that the Kremlin Meeting was arranged "a couple of days ago".

Ukraine has said repeatedly that it will not extend its transit agreement with Russia, nearly 34 months after the war between the two neighbours began.

Slovakia, which has an agreement with Russian gas giant Gazprom for a long time, is trying to continue receiving its gas through Ukraine. It says that buying it elsewhere would result in 220 million euro ($229 millions) more transit costs.

Fico brought up the issue on Thursday, at the European Union Summit in Brussels. Zelenskiy was also present, and he reiterated his country's decision to stop transiting Russian gas. (Reporting and Editing by Lisa Shumaker, Mark Porter)

(source: Reuters)