{"id":262637,"date":"2024-05-20T12:00:28","date_gmt":"2024-05-20T11:00:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/?p=262637"},"modified":"2024-05-18T06:39:18","modified_gmt":"2024-05-18T05:39:18","slug":"slain-slovak-prime-ministers-opposition-to-arming-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/2024\/05\/slain-slovak-prime-ministers-opposition-to-arming-ukraine\/","title":{"rendered":"Slain Slovak Prime Minister\u2019s Opposition to Arming Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico
Defend Democracy Press<\/p><\/div>\n

18 May 2024 <\/em>– Robert Fico\u2019s first official visit to Ukraine lasted<\/a> only half a day. He met with Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal at around 10:00 a.m. local time on January 24 in Uzhhorod, a city in western Ukraine, not far from the border with Slovakia. While the politicians agreed to \u201ccontinued cooperation,\u201d no other details about their meeting were announced. Right after dinner, Fico flew<\/a> to Berlin for talks with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.<\/p>\n

Before the bilateral meeting in Uzhhorod took place, Fico said<\/a> that \u201cUkraine is not a sovereign country and is under the total influence of the U.S.\u201d and called the return of territories occupied by Russia \u201cunrealistic.\u201d \u201cWhat are Ukrainians waiting for? For Russians to leave Donbas and Luhansk? Or Crimea? It\u2019s not realistic. The conflict can\u2019t be solved through military means, and prolonging it will only strengthen Russia\u2019s positions,\u201d said<\/a> the Slovak Prime Minister in an interview with Radio and Television of Slovakia.<\/p>\n

Fico has maintained this position since the start of Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion in February 2022 (when he was a lawmaker in the opposition). \u201cAn immediate halt to combat operations is the best solution we have for Ukraine. The E.U. should change from an arms supplier to a peacemaker. Let them spend 10 years holding peace talks rather than 10 years killing each other with no result,\u201d said<\/a> Fico in late October 2023, one day after assuming office.<\/p>\n

One of his first decisions as prime minister was to stop<\/a> sending equipment and ammo from state and army warehouses to Ukraine\u2019s Armed Forces. Slovakia had previously sent<\/a> 13 military aid packages worth 671 million euros (around $720 million), including an S-300 air defense system, 13 MiG-29 fighter jets, Mi-171 helicopters, infantry fighting vehicles, ammunition, and anti-tank systems.<\/p>\n

Fico has also spoken out against Ukraine\u2019s membership in NATO and promised to block Kyiv\u2019s potential accession. \u201cIt would be nothing but the basis for a third World War,\u201d said<\/a> Fico.<\/p>\n

\u2018In Slovakia, a significant portion of the population openly sympathizes with Russia\u2019<\/h4>\n

Robert Fico, who leads the Smer political party, adopted a harsher approach to Ukraine in mid-2022, explains Slovak political scientist Jozef Len\u010d from the University of Ss. Cyril and Methodius: \u201cAround this period, Smer politicians began talking about a peaceful solution, centered on ending military support for Ukraine, and it giving up occupied and annexed territories.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Smer party maintains that the war in Ukraine started because of \u201cprovocations from NATO and the U.S.\u201d and because \u201cUkrainian nazis\u201d infringed<\/a> upon the rights of Russian-speakers in the Donbas. Len\u010d explained that such statements were Fico\u2019s way of trying to attract voters from the far-right, who tend to hold pro-Russian views. \u201cAnd that\u2019s what he succeeded in doing,\u201d said Len\u010d.<\/p>\n

Go to Original – defenddemocracy.press<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

18 May 2024 – The attack on Slovak Premier Robert Fico, who has been pushing for peace in Ukraine, came amid active preparations by Western countries to directly participate in the Ukraine conflict. The shooting in Slovakia \u201ccoincided with some other events indicating war preparations.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":262638,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[91,278,2160,961,481],"class_list":["post-262637","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-europe","tag-nato","tag-russia","tag-slovak-republic","tag-ukraine","tag-warfare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262637","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=262637"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262637\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":262639,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/262637\/revisions\/262639"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/262638"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=262637"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=262637"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.transcend.org\/tms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=262637"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}