Thousands of protesters in the Slovak capital held banners and chanted slogans on Friday accusing Prime Minister Robert Fico of dragging the country towards Russia after he met President Vladimir Putin last month amid a gas dispute with Ukraine.

Fico said Putin guaranteed that Russia would meets its obligations, although capacity in the TurkStream pipeline and connecting route taking Russian gas through Turkey to Europe was limited. "President Putin guaranteed that they will honour their commitments," Fico said.

Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico said he wasn’t ruling out the resumption of gas through Ukraine after a deal between Kyiv and Moscow expired at the beginning of this year.

Under the slogan "Slovakia is Europe! - We've had enough of Russia!" Slovakian supporters of Ukraine demonstrated in Bratislava on Friday against Prime Minister Robert Fico. The protest rally in front of the government office was called by the citizens' initiative "Mier Ukrajine" (Peace for Ukraine),

Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Wednesday he had secured Slovakia's gas supply during a visit to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow last month, just before Ukraine halted the transit of gas from Russia at the start of 2025.

Pro-Russia separatist enclave, which fought against Moldova in 1992, declare a state of emergency over the end of shipments

Ukraine rejected Slovakia's claims that it had refused to participate in trilateral talks with the EU and Slovakia on Russian gas transit. Slovak, Ukrainian, and European Commission representatives were scheduled to meet on Jan.