Slovakia will stop blocking the approval of the 18th package of European Union sanctions against Russia on Friday, Prime Minister Robert Fico said.

Slovakia’s populist Prime Minister Robert Fico stated he is ending his country’s blocking of the EU’s latest 18 sanctions package against Russia, after claiming he has secured energy guarantees for Slovakia in connection with the EU phase-out of Russian fossil fuel imports.

The EU will lower the price cap on Russian oil and impose additional sanctions on Moscow after Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico dropped his opposition to the latest package. “The EU just approved one of its strongest sanctions package against Russia to date,” the EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas wrote Friday morning on X .