Slovakia tells Trump it won’t stop buying Russian oil now

Slovakia told Donald Trump Saturday that it has no fast plan to stop taking Russian oil. President Peter Pellegrini gave the message during talks with the U.S. president in New York on September 23.

Trump has been pressing the two remaining European Union holdouts, Hungary and Slovakia, to end imports of Russian crude. He argues this would cut Moscow’s war money and push Vladimir Putin to the table. Slovakia, a landlocked Eastern European country bordering Ukraine, resisted and cited limits on new routes and technical hurdles.

Pellegrini said in a statement sent by his office on Saturday that Slovakia cannot replace Russian energy overnight.

“If change is to come in the coming years, it’s called diversification,” he told Trump during the meeting. He added, “Slovakia needs three, four, five different sources of gas and energy. We cannot replace dependence on Russia with dependence on the United States.”

According to the same statement, Slovakia needs technical and logistical help before any major shift. Pellegrini described the meeting as constructive and said Trump “had a smile on his face, but he told me directly: do something about it.”

Trump presses EU holdouts to end Russian oil imports

While Pellegrini was delivering his position, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban also pushed back on Trump this week. Orban said giving up Russian oil and gas would ruin Hungary’s economy. Trump has not only pressed Hungary and Slovakia but also Turkey and India to stop buying oil from Russia. According to EU estimates in May, purchases from Russia now make up only 3% of EU crude oil imports compared with 27% before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Trump wants those last flows cut.

The European Union is considering new trade measures aimed at the remaining Russian oil imports, Bloomberg reported on September 20. Bloomberg said the bloc’s executive arm is reviewing continued imports via the Druzhba pipeline, which feeds Hungary and Slovakia. If adopted, the measures would mostly hit those supplies unless they are phased out. Budapest and Bratislava have blocked earlier attempts, saying the moves threaten their energy security.

EU weighs trade measures and new sanctions package

The trade measures under review are separate from a new sanctions package the EU presented on Friday. That package includes a ban on Russian liquefied gas, starting with short-term contracts six months after entry into force and then extending to long-term deals from January 1, 2027.

As part of the same plan, the EU proposed sanctions on more than 100 oil tankers in Moscow’s “shadow fleet” and other actions targeting entities that enable the energy trade, including in third countries. EU ambassadors were briefed on the proposals on Friday, but no details on timing or scope were given.

Unlike sanctions, which need unanimous backing of member states, trade measures like tariffs require only a majority of capitals. These measures would help the EU meet a key demand made by Trump as a condition for U.S. alignment on Russia sanctions. Trump has said the EU should stop all Russian oil and gas purchases.

Nearly all member states have halted pipeline and seaborne imports, but Hungary and Slovakia are still taking supplies. Most other EU nations have committed to phase out Russian fossil fuels by the end of 2027. Trade measures could be used if Budapest and Bratislava do not present exit plans, people familiar with the matter said.

The U.S. has also pressured its Group of Seven allies to impose tariffs as high as 100% on China and India for their Russian oil purchases to push Putin into talks with Ukraine. That request is expected to face resistance in EU capitals. G‑7 officials are working on a new sanctions package and want to finalize the text later this month, Bloomberg has reported. Other planned EU measures would target major Russian oil firms and the networks and ships that move crude and generate profit for Moscow.

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