Slovakia could take retaliatory measures against Ukraine after Kyiv halted the flow of Russian gas through its territory, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico warned Thursday.

The United Nations Refugee Agency said there were just over 130,000 Ukrainian refugees in Slovakia as of December 8.

Angered by Ukraine's transit stoppage for Russian gas, Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico is threatening to take measures against Ukrainian refugees. Speaking in the capital Bratislava on Thursday,

Austria has insisted it is well prepared for the stoppage, but Slovakia has threatened to cut electricity supplies to neighboring Ukraine.

The Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod pipeline was built in the Soviet era to carry Siberian gas to European markets. It became the main conduit to Ukraine’s border with Slovakia from Siberia, passing through the town of Sudzha — which is now under the control of Ukrainian military forces — in Russia’s Kursk region.

Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico has threatened to cut financial support for more than 130,000 Ukrainian refugees as a dispute with Ukraine over Russian gas supplies escalates. On 1 January, Kyiv shut off a pipeline that for decades was used to supply Central Europe with Russian natural gas.

Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko also says Kyiv can buy electricity from Romania and Poland if it loses supplies from Bratislava.

Slovakia's coalition government is considering potential retaliatory actions against Ukraine following that country's decision to halt the transit of Russian gas to Slovakia through its territory. Prime Minister Robert Fico announced that his Smer party is contemplating a range of responses,