Slovakia will stop blocking the approval of the 18th package of European Union sanctions against Russia on Friday, Prime Minister Robert Fico said. Fico said on Thursday Slovakia had achieved as much as it could at this point,

All negotiating options have been exhausted for now, and continuing our blocking position would now endanger our interests," Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said.

Slovakia accepted guarantees from the European Union’s executive arm to limit the fallout from a planned cutoff of Russian gas supplies and, in exchange, will lift its veto on the bloc’s 18th sanctions package against Moscow.