Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has said that his meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Sunday, 22 December was in response to a statement made by Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy about halting the transit of Russian gas.

Reuters, the news and media division of Thomson Reuters, is the world’s largest multimedia news provider, reaching billions of people worldwide every day. Reuters provides business, financial, national and international news to professionals via desktop terminals, the world's media organizations, industry events and directly to consumers.

Slovakia is dependent on gas passing through Ukraine and Fico has criticised Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy for refusing to extend the contract, which expires at the end of the year. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov,