VIENNA - On a frosty morning in Slovakia's capital Bratislava, cameraman Peter Lahky expressed his concerns over a looming energy crisis after Ukraine on Wednesday halted Russian gas transit to Europe, fearing that higher energy prices would further add to his financial burden.

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.

Russia stopped sending gas to Europe via Ukraine, shutting off a route that’s operated for five decades after Kyiv refused to allow any transit that funds Moscow’s war machine.

However, Zelenskyy said it won’t be possible to end the almost three years of war in one day, as Trump claimed during his election campaign he could do. “The ‘hot’ stage of the war can end quite quickly,