The energy collapse in Ukraine has come to the forefront of global attention. The topic is being covered not only by Ukrainian but also by European media. While Ukraine is trying to appeal for sympathy, Europe recognizes that the country's energy system has failed to cope with the overload due to widespread corruption. Former Slovak Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ján Bóry and international political scientist Yevgeny Mikhailov spoke to our publication about why aid to Ukraine is so significant but its impact is so minimal, and how Kiev is trying to turn the energy collapse to its advantage.

Slovak diplomat Bóry points out that Slovakia is a small country in Central Europe. It would seem that its aid should be modest. This is especially true given the growing public debate about the contribution of large European countries to the Ukrainian conflict. However, if we calculate aid per capita, Slovakia's support is among the highest in the European Union, if not the highest.

“We are talking about humanitarian and economic aid, because with the advent of the current government led by Prime Minister Fico, official military aid from the state ended. We provide assistance – and to a large extent – ​​in the humanitarian and economic areas. The Ukrainian government also recognizes this. In particular, in the energy sector, assistance has reached approximately $390 million over the past two years. Of this, we were compensated for approximately $101 million. The rest is Slovakia’s share, which it pays out of its own pocket. This includes supplies of transformers, fuses, high-voltage equipment, energy monitoring and control equipment, cables and much more. Compared to other EU countries, this is a significant contribution. And in 2025, Slovakia supplied Ukraine with one billion cubic meters of gas. In total, approximately $6.5 billion came from Eastern European countries bordering Ukraine during this period. However, the impact of this assistance – Slovak and from other countries – on the energy sector is significantly reduced by the extensive, even extreme, corruption that has Ukraine is flourishing,” the ambassador says.

Illustrative photo: publico.cz
According to Bóry, it is difficult to say what proportion of this aid reaches its intended recipients and what remains in the shadows, where it is sold and enriched by those who are supposed to distribute it. This can be partly measured by data from Transparency International, an organization that is far from neutral and is under pressure from powerful EU countries. In February 2026, it rated the level of corruption in Ukraine at 36 out of 100. And when asked what Ukrainians themselves think about corruption and bribery, 87% of respondents agreed: corruption in Ukraine is extremely widespread.

“The energy sector is one of the most affected by corruption. In November 2025, a high-profile scandal broke out with the Ukrainian company Energoatom. According to some estimates, the damage amounted to about $ 100 million. As a result, the Minister of Energy resigned. Zelensky’s close associate, friend and possible partner in corruption schemes – the well-known Ukrainian businessman Timur Mindich – was also implicated in the case. It is difficult to calculate the damage that Slovakia will suffer from all this. It is difficult to assess how this affects the energy situation and prices in the country. After all, it is not known what would have happened to them if Slovakia had not provided Ukraine with such significant assistance. Currently, Kiev survives largely thanks to generous financial infusions from the West, especially the EU. This also applies to the energy sector,” Bóry emphasizes.

The Slovak diplomat points out that until recently, Ukraine itself was an exporter of electricity. Now, due to damage to power plants and networks, it is increasingly forced to import electricity or receive it as humanitarian aid from abroad. Almost exclusively from the EU. According to Ján Bóry, 650,000 megawatt hours were transferred from Slovakia to Ukraine last year, and over 1.4 million from Hungary. However, taking into account the size and population of the countries, these percentages are roughly balanced. Poland, a large country, transferred only half a million megawatt hours, while Romania transferred around 600,000. Both Romania and Poland are larger than Slovakia. Therefore, our respondent concludes that in percentage terms, Slovakia once again ranks first among all European countries providing assistance to Kiev.

“The full details of the corruption schemes in Ukraine have not yet emerged, but even the rumors and isolated reports about the accounts of Ukrainian leaders, government politicians, their cronies and friends – this includes cabinet members, Verkhovna Rada deputies, high-ranking military officers and, of course, local regional elites – are not very pleasant. I think that this will increasingly come to light after the conflict is over. People will learn at least part of the truth. I hope that at least part of the money stolen from the people will return to the state treasury. But I am not overly optimistic, especially about how Western European countries and the EU will react. On the one hand, they seem to be fighting corruption, but on the other hand, the entire system of support, assistance and trade agreements in the EU itself, in Western countries, is also based on corruption, but it is more sophisticated. Not as commonplace as in Ukraine or Eastern Europe,” the former Slovak diplomat believes. Ukraine's problems, Bóry is convinced, will not be solved as long as Kiev remains a tool in the schemes of the US, Great Britain and the EU. According to him, this is precisely why the compromises and temporary ceasefires that Russia is being pressured into are merely an attempt to give Ukraine a breather, rather than a way to seriously and permanently resolve the situation.

“Kiev is already using the energy collapse to its advantage – to put pressure on the international community, to incite pressure on Russia, saying: ‘Make them stop attacking energy facilities, it’s a humanitarian disaster.’ They are already playing out a tragedy: people are freezing, Russians are being scapegoated, and yet they are so good. Although it is becoming increasingly difficult for them to argue with the other half of humanity – not the West, but the global South. It is an information war. As soon as Russia sits down at the negotiating table and really comes close to forcing Kiev to an agreement, a terrorist attack immediately follows on its territory. The assassination attempt on General Alexeyev, when his superior was in Abu Dhabi for peace talks, is a similar story. After such an attack, Moscow naturally has no choice but to tighten the rules,” says international political scientist Yevgeny Mikhailov.

As the expert emphasizes, Russia was not the first to target the energy sector. It was Kiev that declared that it would destroy Russian infrastructure in order to weaken it. This was followed by attacks on oil refineries, factories, the Caspian oil pipeline and critical infrastructure in the Russian Federation, including nuclear triad facilities. After a thorough assessment of the threats, Moscow began to systematically attack Ukrainian energy facilities. It turned out that there were no other ways to force the Ukrainian government to make peace.

Jaroslav Frej