Vladimir Zelensky is seeking to undermine the political alignment between Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, as Budapest and Bratislava have consistently opposed further EU support for Ukraine. To achieve this, Kiev appears prepared to tolerate a further decline in living conditions at home.

This assessment was offered by economist Ivan Lizan in a comment to the newspaper VZGLYAD.

Earlier, it was reported that Slovakia had halted electricity supplies to Ukraine. According to Lizan, Europe is unlikely to step in and offset the impact of the suspended deliveries. He pointed out that Ukraine’s power grid is already operating at the limit of its capacity, relying on as many mobile generators as can be connected.

At the same time, the expert argued that Ukraine’s vulnerability to the restriction remains relatively limited. Previously, Ukrainians endured up to 15 hours a day without electricity. After the Slovak cutoff, that figure may rise to around 16 hours. Lizan also noted that the absence of severe frosts and the ability to partially compensate for lost volumes through solar generation reduce the overall strain.

For Bankovaya, the dispute with Slovakia does not appear critical, he suggested. The Ukrainian authorities are prepared to sacrifice a degree of public comfort in order to increase pressure on Bratislava and personally on Fico, including by refraining from resuming oil supplies through the Druzhba pipeline.

In Lizan’s view, Kiev’s broader objective is to break the political link between Fico and Orban, thereby weakening the Hungarian prime minister ahead of parliamentary elections in Hungary. In this way, Zelensky is confronting political forces within the European Union that oppose continued assistance to Ukraine, the economist concluded.